Last post...

So this is my last blog entry and the last week of class, which consisted mostly of presentations. I really liked Stuti’s presentation on catfish, beforehand I never knew what a huge industry it was. It seems kind of strange that so many people like eating catfish because I have definitely never heard of them being served in the north or even of anyone saying they ate catfish. I also liked Joe’s presentation on sports—high school football in the south has always somewhat intrigued me because the idea of sports being so intense is just not how it was in my high school. His presentation made me think of the show Friday Night Lights, which is about a Texas football team that basically the whole town revolves around. I wonder if it’s portrayed accurately or merely an exaggeration. Joe’s presentation also made me wonder how other countries view our culture. Do they see it mainly as represented by the sports enthusiastic culture of the south or by the European copy cat culture in the north that Joe was talking about? Eric’s presentation was really interesting. Slavery and the country’s treatment of blacks is considered a blemish in our history but it’s interesting to realize that we’re still treating people in a racist, exploitative manner today and we don’t seem to even notice it. I wonder if other countries have this same issue of always needing to have an “other” that can be isolated from mainstream society and treated very differently from everyone else.

Anyway, it has been a great semester. Theo, thank you for choosing a wide variety of interesting texts that brought to light issues I might not otherwise ever been aware of. I really enjoyed class discussion—it was nice that we had a class where everyone listened to everyone else and brought up really interesting issues.

Post #12

I though L-Play was very entertaining; the stories almost reminded me of a combination of Waiting for Godot and The Stranger because things just seemed to happen almost without a logical rising action or conclusion. I liked the first story about loneliness the best because it had so much woven into a short four page story—there were all sorts of unresolved issues including Monica’s issues with men, her own family, revenge, and Joan’s own murky past and deceitful present. I didn’t really know what to make of the end at first, Monica is dead and there was so resolution to any of the problems the author brings up, but at the same time I think maybe the author just wanted his readers to get to know a character, possibly feel some sympathy for her and then feel something when she died. We haven’t yet discussed L-Play in class and I’m curious about the context of this work and how it relates to Mississippi.

In terms of the “High Lonesome” piece I wasn’t really as interested in this reading but I can kind of relate because I feel like everyone knows someone like the uncle—a man who you look up to but at the same time realize is dangerously flawed. It’s worthwhile to look at the qualities that the narrator admires in his uncle—the “savage grace,” the skill, the knowledge, the wealth. But oddly even though the narrator is young and looks up to this guy as a father figure he still manages to see the man’s flaws in particular in relation to how he treats blacks. Initially, the narrator blames most of his uncle’s problems on his wife but as he matures he realizes that she is certainly not the only reason Peter drinks and looses control. I guess this blaming sort of relates to the “Defense of Southern Womanhood” that we read. Whereas in that piece the author mentions that if a woman killed her husband it was believed that he deserved it, in this story the wife is blamed for the unhappiness of her husband. Finally, I found it intriguing how the narrator can’t seem to love or admire his father in the same way he interacts with the much more colorful uncle Peter. This might say something about what qualities people admire or are drawn to.

Lastly, the Mississippi History was worthwhile because it focused on ethnic issues, which are sometimes overshadowed by the black/white tension. After reading this we ask ourselves did Chuck overreact or was Kenny wrong for laughing? Putting myself in Chuck’s position I think Kenny was at fault but putting myself in Kenny’s place makes me blame Chuck. Sadly, I think that ethnic/race issues can be so hurtful and devastating that they really can cause an incurable rift in friendships.

Post #11

I really liked the “In Defense of Southern Womanhood,” I never realized that a woman could literally get away with murder in the South. I guess this means that part of what goes into a jury decision is image—the jury found it hard to convict a well-dressed, petit southern woman. I found it interesting how many of the women in this story claimed a black man committed their crime. This seemed weird to me because women and blacks are historically repressed groups so I would think that women would be less likely to exploit blacks. Maybe these women were exceptions because they seemed pretty insane already or I might be wrong and maybe women were just as racist and exploitive as men. Another point I found interesting was when the article noted, “southerners do not question unexplained phenomena or the mysteries of nature, human or otherwise.” Of course this is a generalization but I wonder to what extent is it true, why did this author think to include it—was it merely her critique of Southern society or is their some strand of truth to it?

I also read the Etheridge pieces and I liked “The Essential Etheridge Knight” better because I thought the poems were definitely worth reading and thinking about whereas in the second Etheridge handout I thought the part about people living off blacks’ dreams was kind of far fetched and didn’t really leave me with something to think about. Specifically, I liked “The Idea of Ancestry” which made me think about how lonely and frustrating it must be to sit in a cell and watch your relationships fall apart. Not only that, one person in jail affects and can really bring down a whole family. The “wasp” that come to visit the prisoner made me think of how just little things like this could remind the prisoners of their humanity and of the world that they’re a part of but yet at the same time cut off from. Etheridge mentions how this woman made the prisoner walk softly for a day. In other words, I think the behavior of the prisoners is largely dictated by their environment—if they’re treated “softly” then they act “softly.” This makes me question how much prison violence went on considering the terrible violence that the prisoners were subjected to.

Finally, the piece on prisons made me consider what a world without them would be like. The author makes a great point that we grow up thinking that prisoners are an essential part of society just as at one time slavery was considered a permanent part of society. It’s strange to think about how we would deal with criminals otherwise—maybe through rehabilitation or maybe there’s a world that would be possible without crime (which of course as the author mentions would require a restructuring of society at every level).

Post #10

This week I’m going to write about the Lomax readings that deal with prisons and Doc Reese’s story. First, I found the piece about prisons to be really horrible. It reminded me of the movie Shawshank Redemption and how the prison guards were corrupt and abused (and even killed) prisoners without consequence. To think that this really happened (and not too long ago) surprised me not only because it happened but also because I had never heard of this. It still amazes me about all the corruption that happens and that the media never get wind of. For instance, over the weekend I saw American Gangster, based on a true story, which portrayed the incredible corruption of the NYC police department that was widespread enough to result in the conviction of 75 percent of police officers after it was finally realized. I guess one of the things that saddened me about this chapter was the fact that prison abuse could still be going on today and we could not even know about it because most prisoners wouldn’t have access to the media and even if they could tell someone about abuse they might not be believed or more likely they would be silenced.

It’s kind of hard to believe that these people had any incentive to live; I mean their lives were so terrible I don’t know if I would have been able to wake up in the morning. It makes me mad because you only have one life to live and its so unfair that these poor men were put in jail arbitrarily and subjected to some of the worst treatment possible—especially since they were basically under the control of lower-class, racist, power hungry whites. One thing I noticed in the Doc Reese chapter was the really degrading terms the guards used to describe the blacks: “god damn your black soul…old nigger…you sorry blue-black ape.” And then when Cold Blood kills Lew I was wondering how a person can witness that sort of raw violence and then keep working. Either they become so immune to violence that they can’t even conceptualize it or they just allow their anger and resentment to fester inside themselves. It would interesting to examine the psychological aspects of people that allow them to withstand such dire conditions. There must be some human adaptation that allows people to deal with these situations. Overall, this seems to be just one more instance of terrible violence that isn’t really remembered in history books or by most teachers for that matter. Maybe if more people knew that this went on then they would be more interested in helping blacks today (for instance with affirmative action or city reform etc.).

Post # 9

So on Wednesday I’m going to be discussion leader and I’ll be talking about the Medgar Evers pieces and Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From.” The first piece I read was Welty’s and I definitely thought it was the most engaging of the three. For me, the first paragraph was very significant because it seemed to reveal a lot about the main character. He tells his wife she doesn’t have to look at the “black nigger face no longer,” which seemed to me to demonstrate his need to control not only his wife but also to degrade Evers and by extension assert himself as superior (which would be another form of control). I mean obviously his wife is capable of shutting off the television if she wants but the fact that he tells her she can hints at his need to create the world he wants to live in, to ultimately have control over his community. As Abbey mentioned in her blog the stylistic choices that Welty makes bring this character to life—more specifically his word choice highlights that he is not only uneducated but also has this weird very illogical way of thinking. For instance, he gets the idea to kill this man from the mere act of turning off the TV. Further pointing to his bizarre mind set is his assertion that Evers will never be equal to him because he’s now dead. So obviously Welty wants readers to understand first that this killer gives his act little or no thought beforehand and then after the killing takes pleasure in the fact that he has asserted himself as perpetually above this black man (who is probably one of the only black men in close proximity to this guy who has ever asserted his intelligence and humanity so forthrightly). Finally, another thing that interested me was the repetition of the “hot” theme, which I think, really helps to reinforce not only the tensions but also the urgency that the killer felt and also the tremendous threat that Evers posed to this man’s way of life. Maybe the hotness shows that the situation in this town was so charged that one spark could ignite it. Anyway we can discuss this more on Wednesday.

Post # 8

This week I decided to write about Brown v. Board of education and the poem. First, I learned about Brown in high school history but I had never read it before so it was pretty interesting to actually read what the Supreme Court justices had to say about segregation. One point the decision makes is that separate is inherently unequal not because the tangible factors may be unequal but because black students in segregated schools will feel badly about themselves, have low self-esteem and by extension not be able to be as productive. I was really surprised by the information the decision provided about education in the South. I never realized that education of white student in the South had been largely done privately. This seems so strange since I know that in Massachusetts free public education had been instituted since the time of the Puritans. But equally as surprising was the fact that it was illegal in some states even to educate blacks (I had always assumed that after slavery this sort of legislation would have been eliminated).

The decision also encompassed the assumption that segregation was increasing the progression of the educational system and hindering American youth because it was nearly impossible for anyone to be a productive member of society without a decent education. So then I started thinking about affirmative action and how it is designed to right a past wrong. I guess if you think about it prior to Brown, blacks didn’t have a shot at getting a good education unless they were wealthy and living in the North. So this cycle of being disadvantaged has continued and hopefully affirmative action will make this a non-issue for future generations. After all as the decision cites education is the most important function of state and local governments.

Then I went onto the poem “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon.” This poem really confused me. I wasn’t sure if the woman was somehow related to the Emmitt Till trial because an acquittal was mentioned. Also, I wasn’t sure what the purpose of the capitalized masculine pronouns. Finally, I couldn’t decided why the Prince was hurting the woman. So I’m looking forward to discussing this in class and getting some clarity.

Post # 7

I just finished reading Welty’s “The Demonstrators” and Suzan Harrison’s piece about Welty. At first, while I was reading “The Demonstrators” I was confused about a number of things. First, I didn’t understand the crowd that was looking at Rudy and why they kept having such strange reactions to the doctor (they laughed at weird times, wouldn’t explain what happened, didn’t help catch the guinea pigs). I was also confused when Welty started going into the doctor’s past—at first I wasn’t entirely sure how this related.


Given that “The Demonstrators” was written during a tumultuous time I think this might shed some light on the meaning of the title. But this still puzzles me and I’m not entirely sure if it’s referring to those who watched Rudy die, or Rudy and Dove’s act which could demonstrate race issues/instability/marital problems, or possibly the title could mean something entirely different that I missed.

It stuck out to me that Dr. Strickland could barely recognize his own maid and realized that she was “the maid” in a very matter of fact way. It seemed strange that she had been cleaning his office five days a week and he couldn’t even recognize her. Perhaps this shows his lack of perception—possibly this is what drove his wife away and caused her to angrily tell him, “You won’t tell Herman Fairbrooks what’s the matter with him.”

The significance of the newspaper also confused me at first but after reading Harrison I realized it highlights the significance of reading, of the media, and of the biased news article at the end of the text (which I thought was Welty’s way of pointing out how poorly the media reports violence against blacks).

White kept coming up in the story (white dress, white apron, white tea pot). Harrison notes that the white dress indicated Rudy’s position in white society. Also, it could show how whites wanted to make blacks more like themselves but at the same time in a certain uniform that would make them readily identifiable as hired help.

I liked Harrison’s explanation of the guinea pigs, “unlike the guinea pigs of medical research controlled by and subjected to the intentions of human researchers, these creatures are wild and uncontrollable. Running in all directions, distracting and tripping the doctor…” This might be a stretch but I think some parallels can be drawn between the freedom of the guinea pigs and the freedom Rudy realizes in her death—finally she’s not under the control of Dove and no longer has to be a maid to the white people.

I really want to discuss this story and maybe get some closure to whether or not Dove actually did hurt Rudy or if this double attack was a set up. Finally, I’m curious as to what other people thought about how Welty depicts race relations in this story. I might be reading too much into things but I felt like this story reflected the unruly nature of the 60s and captured the reaction of an old-fashioned white man to this changing world.