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.

Post # 6

For this week I decided to right about Evening Sun. The first thing that stuck out was the Negro women who carry the clothes from the white people’s house to the wash pot without touching it. This “old custom” seemed like an objectification of black women into automobiles or machines that so effortlessly carried the clothing. Faulkner then introduced us to Nancy who is capable of this machine-like occupation but in coming paragraphs falls apart at the seams into an emotional wreck over the prospect of being killed by Jesus. So we have a contrast between the role that black women fill in the working world and who they really are in their personal lives.

I guess this particular story helped me to realize the plight of the African-American woman who was not only subjected to the cruelties of whites but also was expected to put up with whatever violence their husbands perpetrated against them. I thought it was also interesting when the jailer talks about how “no nigger would try to commit suicide unless he was full of cocaine, because a nigger full of cocaine wasn’t a nigger any longer.” This didn’t really make sense to me because the jailer is saying that a “nigger” wouldn’t commit suicide unless he or she was on drugs so this would mean that without drugs a black person is capable of understanding the ramifications of suicide. So the jailer, at least in my opinion, seemed to be suggesting perhaps subconsciously that blacks were in fact not animal like but instead had their own minds and thinking abilities.

When Nancy keeps saying “I ain’t nothing but a nigger” I wasn’t sure if maybe Faulkner was somehow expressing his irritation with blacks who use this justification or if he was subtly showing Nancy’s skill at avoiding taking responsibility for herself. Also, I thought it was interesting how Jesus decided to take out his anger at the white man (for being able to walk into his kitchen and do whatever he wants etc.) on Nancy. I remember reading in history that black men would often subject their wives to the same degradation white men subjected them too.

Lastly, I came to like but at the same time dislike the father because he protect Nancy but in a paternalistic sort of way. When he tells her she should have behaved herself it sounded to me as if he wasn’t looking at the situation holistically but instead was just blaming her the way a parent would blame a child.

Post #5

“The White Problem in American Studies” was an illuminating experience for me. Before I came to Cornell I had a lot of ideas about why some people were rich and others poor, and I think it’s easiest to dismiss poorness as a consequence of laziness and stupidity. I never realized the role our society and government’s infrastructure played in keeping some people “down.” I liked the way the article started by mentioning Richard Wright’s inversion of the question of the “Negro problem” instead as a “white problem.” I’ve heard this phrase (Negro problem) used so many times before and never really thought about what it means to call a group in our society a problem. By shifting the focus from whites to blacks, white supremacy and power goes largely unnoticed while black poverty is magnified. Until now, I never thought that the best way to help blacks equalize with whites was to reform white society.

I liked how Lipsitz used some historical context to show how Americans came to be somewhat calloused to exploiting people starting back in colonial times with the Indians. This continuing trend unfortunately seems engrained in our national character and persists today⎯especially evident in Bush’s idea to erect a massive wall to remedy the “Mexican problem.” One thing that really surprised me was that Lipsitz points out how some of the New Deal acts excluded workers from coverage and channeled benefits primarily to whites. Learning about the New Deal junior year I always saw it as tremendously positive because this sort of underlying bias is never presented in the text book. Furthermore, the information concerning real estate was really shocking to think that this is going on today. I guess the best way to solve of these bias issues (besides enacting legislation which of course would be most effective) would be simply to bring awareness. In fact after I read this I posted my idea for a show on the Tyra Banks website.

Especially when Lipsitz talks about the issue of seniority in the workplace I can definitely see how blacks have had a really tough time recovering from all the restrictions put on them, not only during slave times but also in the years that followed. I’ve always been in favor of affirmative action. But at the same time one thing I have to mention is the fact that my grandparents were very poor immigrants who were Italian living in Boston and discriminated against. Yet one generation later, my dad was able to be economically much more successful than them without benefiting form any sort of affirmative action programs. But maybe comparing my family to blacks, who obviously suffered a lot more persecution, isn’t fair.

So this week I finished Black Boy. In class we talked about the second part and some people didn’t really think it connected. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy the Horror and the Glory quite as much as Southern Night probably because it lacked that certain shock quality inherent in the violence and pronounced repression of the first part. But for me I definitely like the book better with the second part included. Had the book ended after Southern Night it would have seemed too hopeful to be realistic. I guess it would be easy to believe that in the North Richard could find what he was looking for and be happy and fulfilled. The second part of the novel demonstrates the imperfection in the world, the need for continuing change, and also personally I found part two more modern and more relatable.

One thing that struck me as interesting was on page 272 in Black Boy when Wright declares, “Culturally the Negro represents a paradox: Though he is an organic part of the nation, he is excluded by the entire tide and direction of American culture.” I never really thought about how strange it is that whites more or less tried to keep a whole group of people who had been part of the nation⎯ before even the massive flood of immigrants⎯ from impacting American culture. This isn’t entirely unique to the Africans though it was probably most pronounced in their case. I’ve read accounts of how ostracized immigrants (especially Chinese and Italians) were by white Protestants. I guess this goes back to the theme of otherness we were discussing. It seems like people are always looking to isolate a group and probably due to the color of their skin blacks were most easily distinguishable and thus most readily isolated.

I liked Wright’s use of parentheses in the second part. Normally parentheses enclose information that is not entirely essential to the reader’s understanding but in this case they were where the core of Wright’s ideas were located. It was as though the autobiography stopped and he stepped in and talked to readers from the perspective of a well educated, experienced adult with an important message to get across.

Another important passage is on page 281 when Richard decides, “ I felt that it was unfair that my lack of a few pounds of flesh should deprive me of a chance at a good job, but I had long ago emotionally rejected the world in which I lived and my reaction was: Well, this is the system by which people want the world to run…” So Richard realizes the cold, mechanical world and accepts it for what it is rather than wanting to change it. I think that though this seems like such a hopeless realization, readers may actually be inspired to want to change this element of our world. To some extent, I think the change is already occurring. For instance, I know when my parents applied to college their wasn’t emphasis on an essay instead it was grades and test scores that counted most. Now however activities and experiences factor into admission. Sadly, I think a lot of people feel as though they must accept the world for what it is. I don’t know if this is unique to my generation but I think its really important to chose some issue to be passionate about because if everyone did then the world would be always progressing but not radically, or chaotically.

Richard also talks about when he worked in the institute and saw the students getting instruction in mathematics and chemistry and felt as though he was looking into the world of another race. The image of the starched white nurses and the old, fat black girls walking behind them reminds me of some weird futuristic society where people would be separated in such a distinct and arbitrary manner and then I remember that this was actually and almost unfathomably in our past. I can’t begin to comprehend how enraging it must have been to be forced to live in a world not your own.

For me, the most memorable image of this book is of the white doctor slitting the vocal cords of the dog and then the dog looking up at the moon in a silent wail. This silent suffering so closely mirrors the blacks that are silenced violently by the whites who barely give any thought to what they’re doing. Finally, when the animals get loose in the lab Richard wants to tell the whites but fears the repercussions. Thus, the whites treat the workers like children and in doing so only harm themselves because it means they can’t really on the

Post # 3

What really struck me about this week’s readings was the question of black humanity. On page 184 in Black Boy Richard talks about the problem of acting human around whites “I would remember to dissemble for short periods, then I would forget and act straight and human again, not with the desire to harm anybody, but merely forgetting the artificial status of race and class.” So basically Richard concludes that in order to stay out of trouble he must act inhuman, like an object. Whites hate independence in blacks and probably hate indications of humanity (laughter, sadness, etc.) because the only way they could continue to treat blacks as less than human would be to juvenilize and trivialize the humanity of the blacks. And eventually they seem to succeed at suppressing the emotions that make Richard human. Richard decides he had “developed, slowly, and painfully, a capacity to contain it within myself without betraying it to any” (he’s talking about his tension, his nervousness around the whites). The self-discipline the blacks had was astounding. But I looked up online the average life expectancy for blacks and whites and discovered that whites have always lived longer on average than blacks (at least in this country). I’m sure there are economical reasons for this but I suspect that bottling up emotions to an insane degree must create such a terrible stress on a person that they can’t possibly be as healthy as a person who can live more freely.

When I first was reading Black Boy I hated Richard’s family for the way they beat him almost without reason (similar to how the whites threw a glass bottle at Richard because he didn’t use the word “sir”). I felt like there was something lacking in these adults⎯it seems almost inhuman to beat a mere child and chastise him for just existing (such as when his mother slaps him for asking so many questions). But the I remembered that I had seen on T.V this housing development a very wealthy black man was putting together in New York City. He allowed poor black families to rent brownstones for really low rates and provided them with a community center and some other useful services. What he found was that these parents had no idea how to raise their children so gave new parents counseling when their children were first born and realized this was the only way to break the cycle of physical abuse handed down from one generation to the next. So I guess I look at the adults with pity rather than contempt because they really didn’t know any better⎯a sense of morality has to be learned from some place.

Post #2

I’ve often thought about the tragedies and struggles of past generations and how unfortunate it would be to live in a time when you can’t even be in charge of your own happiness. I guess I kind of think our generation takes for granted the rights we have and the chance to shape our own destiny. I can’t even begin to imagine how it would have been to be black back in the times of Du Bois. “Of the Coming of John” spoke to me because it highlighted the cost of this repression on individuals whose identities were shaped not by their personal choices but more so by the restrictions that society placed on them. John’s once carefree outlook is abruptly transformed as he begins to realize the true nature of the world he lives in. He becomes cold and methodical perhaps because he realizes this is the only way he can bring about desperately needed change. Though he is obviously unhappy and living a life of duty to others, John remarks to his sister that he is still glad he gained a more realistic impression of the world prompting her to wish she too was "unhappy". Maybe it's part of human nature to be self-sacrificing but I can’t help but feel bad that John has to struggle so hard against people like the Judge who were born with the rights and opportunities he seeks and yet still take them or granted enough to dismiss John’s desire for a better life.

Making Whiteness reminded me of a show Tyra Banks did called “Focus on Race”. She examined what is considered beautiful by Asians, Hispanics, blacks, and whites. Despite some discrepancies in each race’s image of ideal beauty, most of the guests seemed to find the same characteristics extolled by the media as beautiful. I think our idea of attractiveness is being constantly molded and impacted by the images we encounter in daily life. For instance, my grandma would never think Beyonce was beautiful because she grew up trained to believe white small features were attractive.

Making Whiteness draws much needed attention to the “culture of segregation”⎯the manipulation of images and subsequently of mind-sets. And it asks the interesting question of what would America be without its black component. I’m interested to see how Hale addresses this issue. I feel like part of our national character was almost defined in the early part of the 20th century by hating blacks and using them as a way to define white virtues.

Entry #1

I’m currently undecided in the college of Arts and Sciences. In high school most of the classes I took were humanities courses such as international relations, history, government etc. Senior year I ended up taking AP Chemistry really only because I liked the teacher and a number of my friends were in the class. Even though I had never thought I liked science, I didn’t mind chemistry nearly as much as I thought I would and actually even enjoyed it at times. Consequently, I decided to take a science class my first semester at Cornell. I decided on Introduction to Botany since I’m into gardening and I figured it would be good to know more about the mechanics of plant life. My other classes are Introduction to American Studies, and Plagues and People.

I grew up in Cohasset Massachusetts, which is a small, coastal, almost entirely white town. Most people in Cohasset are upper middle-class Republicans who like the beach and the Red Sox. There was almost no diversity at my high school; the two or three blacks students in each grade were part of this METCO program where inner city students were given the chance to attend a suburban school. I liked Cohasset and I liked growing up there but at the same time there wasn’t very much to do there so I guess I’m happy to have gone someplace bigger.

In terms of interests and hobbies, I ran track throughout high school and even though I’m not on any sports teams here, I still like to run for leisure. I also like to shop, see movies, go to the beach, and hang out with friends.

Writing well means being concise but still making a point. I hate it when I have to read a book or an essay for a class that is convoluted and confusing. One of my favorite books is Brave New World because it just as such a natural flow to it⎯it bothers me when I have to keep re-reading a page just to understand it. Also, good writing makes some argument so when you come to the end of it you feel like there was some value in what you just read. Even though I’d like to think that I value what an author has to say the most, I’m still really impressed by sophisticated language and clever witticisms. It was my experience in high school that sometimes (even though I don’t necessarily think this is right) even if an author doesn’t make a really good point if he writes really well people can be just as impressed.

For the paper about one sentence, I chose my sentence because I thought it mirrored the overall structure and theme of Du Bois’s first essay. I struggled with whether or not to focus narrowly on the sentence or to incorporate more of Du Bois’s overall message in my essay. Also, I think I could have improved on how I structured my paragraphs⎯I’m not sure if I made my conclusions as clear as they could have been.

In my hometown there’s this service project called ASP (Appalachia Service Project) where we go to poor areas in Appalachia and help fix up people’s houses. This first got me interested in the South because before I went there I never realized how different it was from the North. So I guess I want to learn about what makes Mississippi unique in its ideas, ways of life, industry, and history. I think there are misconceptions and certainly a lot of stereotypes about Southerners and I want to shed these and instead gain an understanding of how Mississippi transformed from a slave state to its present state. Finally, I want to become familiar with the people who helped shape Mississippi’s history. If Mississippi is truly a microcosm then by gaining an understanding of this one state we’ll also be able to understand our nation.