Why study harlem?

I feel that studying the harlem renaissance is still worthwhile because it was a time when blacks were finally liberated and slowly gaining rights along with women. It showed the harsh brutalities they had to face along with the many stereotypes they had to fight against to build a strong respectable reputation as a black community. People began to embrace who they were and were proud of their heritage. It was a time where black writers and musicians and artists were finally becoming recognized for their contributions to society. We need to study the harlem renaissance to understand what the blacks had to go through and what they had to face in society in order to make a change.

End of book

The ending of the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston took me by surprise. I was shocked to find out that Tea Cake has beaten Janie. I do not know the reasons behind him beating her other than to possibly show control over her as any man does to a woman they beat. I really can't say as though I was shocked to see that Janie just took it instead of standing up for herself. I feel this came from her past and how Joe use to control her by not allowing her to speak in public or even really be seen for that matter. I feel as though she just took this as a fact of life. She has been controlled before so it is nothing new now. I feel she like many other woman have fallen into this trap with abuse. Whether it is emotional, mental, or physical people do not leave. They feel that their love can change the man and that they will see the error of their ways and yes that is nice to think but more than likely will never happen. Granted Jody never gave her the freedom to do what she wants and with Tea Cake she can have a say she can use her voice so in a way she found herself and her strength. I feel that since she was able find her inner strength and find her voice that even though he beats her it is better than what she had before where she had no voice. I can speak from experiece that if a man beat me I could never stay with him. My boyfriend of over two years decided he was going to hit me one day and quickly after that I left him. There was no way I was going to stay around any longer to find out what else he would have done and that is why I cannot see how Janie would stay with this man. It doesn't matter how much you love someone if they can raise their hand or hurt you in any way one time they can do it again and more than likely will.

Zora Hurston

Reading the packet handed out by the teacher I was quite surprised. The lady that was writing this article was trying to find accurate information on voodoo practices of the Southern Blacks in the 1930's. As she went around trying to find materials she was very let down by white racist anthropologists and folklorists she thought she could trust. When she audited a class she heard Zora's name mentioned for the first time and wanted to find out more about her but the teacher just quickly talked about her and spent more time on the more famous writes and poets of that time.

While reading Zora's work the thought of being racially and cultrually inferior to whites never crossed her mind which pleased me. Since it seems that all the things we have read up to this point was just about how blacks have been racially segregated, and inferior to the white race. In Zora's writings she would talk about a superior society which is a nice change of pace.

Many blacks have forgoteen about their southern heritage but after Zora's book Mules and Men changed all that. It completely changed how Blacks felt and thought. By reading her book it "gave back all the stories they had forgotten or of which they have grown to be ashamed of which was told to them years ago by their parents and grandparents which would make them weep or laugh." It showed them just how great these stories are. I haven't read Zora's book but I think it would be very interesting and a great read.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I think that it is a nice change of pace reading a novel now instead of all those poems. Just starting out with this book I find it to be a little challenging to read but interesting as well. I just liked the scene where all the ladies are gathered on the porch to talk about Janie and how she was seen earlier leaving town with a young man who's name is Tea Cake which (which made me laugh) and now she was seen walking alone. I just found it to be interesting how they immediately jumped to the conclusion that Tea Cake left her for a younger woman when that isn't the truth after all. It turns out that she can't be with him at that place anymore cause she isn't happy there. I felt that they were just so quick to judging her since she is beautiful with long beautiful hair and they were just jealous of her. And just because she walked by and didn't bother to stop and talk to the ladies on the porch doesn't mean she is withdrawn or impersonal she probably just didn't want to talk to them. It is good that Phobe stood up for Janie though!

While I was reading this it reminded me of Autobiography. In this book Janie did not know that she was black. In fact she thought of herself as white until she saw that picture of herself. Just like in Autofbiography of an Ex Coloured man. He never knew he was different from the others until the teach pointed it out. I think this just goes to show you just how color blind children are. To children everyone is the same it isn't until you have the influence of environment and parents that children begin to become racist and prejudice.

Then when it talks about how when Janie was 16 she would often sit under a pear tree thinking about the budding fertility of spring which I felt is also a sexual reference to herself and the tree is almost like a standard that she has. A tree is strong, sturdy, it is the ideal love she is longing for. Now I could be reading too much into that and maybe I am totally off base when I say that but it seems with everything we have read you have to look inbetween the lines, through the lines, etc.

I was upset reading the part about Janie with Johnny I think his name is and Nanny catches her with Johnny and decides to quickly marry her off to a man named Logan just to be sure she is taken care of. I can understand her reasoning behind it all it just all seemed unfair.

I have liked this book so far and hopefully it stays good!

Hughes poems

With everything that we have read for class so far I have to say I like Langston Hughes poems the best. I feel that they are an easy read, easy to interpet and just a lot better than our other readings. The poem that I really liked and I feel many people can relate to is "Mother to Son."

This poem is about a mother talking to her son about perserverance and never giving up. She talks about her life and how is was not easy for her. She had encountered many obstacles, sometimes she would be walking in the dark which I took as she was trying to find a path to follow that is different than the one she is on. This new path is dark because it's unknown she is taking a risk with her life going places she is unsure of but will not allow herself to look back. The life she had at some parts contained splinters, the boards we all torn up meaning that she experienced pain. With the boards torn up the path her life was on became difficult where she had to keep going on and find a new way to obtain her goals in life.

She is telling this to her son so that he will not give up and to let him know that life is not all about apple pie in the sky. There will be heartach, there will be trials. At some parts you will have to find your own way when the path you are on has roadblocks or is all torn up. That even though the path you choose is not clear right now keeping marching through the darkness and you will find the light. Though you don't know where you life is leading you now everything always seems to work itself out in the end so don't ever look back and keep going because it will make you a stronger person.

I think that this poem relates to all of us. No one knows where our lives will take us. Right now we may see a path and we can see the end and it all looks great but something happens that throws us on a different, unexpected and unfamiliar path. We could choose to turn around to what is comfortable and familiar or keep moving forward and see where this new path in life takes us.

Countee Cullen

Out of all the poems I read from this handout I think that my favorite ones that stuck out to me were Tableau and Incident.

In the poem Tableau I just found it to be interesting. Here you you have two boys one white and one black walking arm in arm. They know they are different but to them it doesn't mean anything. To these boys all they cared about was their friendship and the fact that the other one was of a different color didn't bother them. The only ones who seems to have a problem with them are the older people. It says how "from lowered blinds the dark fold stare, and here the fair folk talk, indignant that these two should dare in unison to walk." To me this just shocked me and really made me realize that racism is mostly the adults fault. To these boys color meant nothing but to the older people it meant everything and "how dare these two walk together." Give me a break they are friends and just because someone's skin is darker than yours doesn't mean they are any better or worse.

Then I read the poem the Incident and this really stood out to me as well. Its about this boy going to Baltimore for the first time and on the ride up there someone called him a nigger. He went on to stay in Baltimore for a few more months but the only thing that he remembered was this one incident on the ride up. This goes to show you just how hurtful words are and things that are said out of the "norm" or hate have a lasting impact. As you can tell this boy didn't remember any fun interesting things he did all he could remember was that hurtful word spoken to him that one day. This just makes me realize that even I have to make sure I watch what I say. Granted I would never say a word like that to anyone still things you say do hurt and do cut deep.

Brownies Book

I found this booklet handed out by the teacher was interesting. The story that stood out to me though was called Jury. In this story it is about a young black boy writing to an editor of a magazine asking him to in his magazines about what jobs black boys can do. This boy wants to draw up houses and have other people build them. The reason he wants to draw up houses is because he saw a white boy doing it and thought it would be fun. As, he was speaking to the boy the boy laughed at him and said "colored boys don't draw houses."

I was shocked at this remark. I realize that back them racism and prejudice was part of everyday life and for most kids it was engrained in them since birth by their parents, but to laugh at someone just for expressing a desire to draw houses is rediculous. This just really shocked me it was as if they were saying that the only thing that black people can do or know how to do is pick cotton or tend to the houses as well as all the other jobs that went along with slavery. It saddened me in a way that you could actually see how restricted of a life blacks led.

"Passing"

As I was reading this book I would like to say I was shocked at the lengths that people go through in order to "pass" but I'm not. It is interesting though that the fear of not being considered white will lead you almost to turn on your family. How it says in the book that these pregnant women's worst fear is having a dark child because then their secret will be discovered. Then you have Clare's husband who is married to a woman who is passing and he doesn't even realize it. The fact that he is in a room full of blacks and he says all these terrible things and Clare just laughs it off really shocked me even men he called her a "nig" she seemed to be okay with that. Even if she was laughing because she was playing this big joke on him since she was really black how much is she willing to endure? There comes a time when the person needs to draw the line and be like enough is enough.

I remember when I went to Bolivia for three weeks you could see there was huge class struggles. The whiter you are the higher the class you were. Even in their own families the lighter more fair skinned children and family members will be treated A LOT better than those with darker skin. I just couldn't believe that this stuff still happened to this day. It seemed like everywhere I went or wherever I turned someone was grabbing my hand and was just in awe as they looked at your skin and would say muy bonita.

Black Illustrations

The last class we watch a film about African Americans and how they were treated and depicted. Then we were to think about if the illustrations of these African Americans would do more harm than good. Does it affect them still to this day?

Here are my thoughts as I watched the movie. I was very surprised at the monkey like features of the African American people. They were viewed as having huge lips, wide eyes, very large feet and hands that almost seemed to drag as they walked, and terrible teeth. Their features were overly exaggerated. I believe these Jim Crow images were very devestating to the African American people. It made them seem unintelligent. The only job the can obtain and maintain were servant like jobs. Not only this but they also made the African Americans come across as very lazy, unintelligent, child like and always avoiding work when they can.

Then they were depicted with smiles and happy go lucky looks about them that it made it seem that slavery was not such a terrible institution and being that they are so lazy and avoid work at all costs they are lucky these white people are even allowing them to work for them.

These pictures were horrible and it did harm the image and reputation as African Americans even to this day. I mean just take a social program such as welfare for example. There can be two women walking down the street each with three-five kids. One woman is white while the other is black. The first thing that will most likely jump in many peoples minds is that the Black lady is on welfare and she will be having another kid in a few years to stay in the program so she wont have to work. Without even knowing either of their stories we have just passed judgement on these two women. I'm not saying this to be racist or prejudice but I believe many people are guilty of thinking that way one time or another.

So yes these illustrations and all the ways African Americans were depicted in the Jim Crow south has had a huge negative impact on them back then as well as today.

Cane poems con't

Out of all the poems I liked Calling Jesus the best. I could be totally off base with my interpretation of this poem but I'm going to say it anyways. What I get from this poem is that this is a story about a black women with a great and energetic soul about her. They compare her soul to that of a puppy. So I take it that on the outside this women is full of love and happiness and shows kindness to everyone. But when she goes home every night her soul is "placed in the vestibule" meaning she leaves her soul at the front door. I take this as what she is like during the day is not who she truly is. She leaves her spirit at the front door so when she leaves during the day she can pick up this soul as a way of hiding the real person underneath. She is under a facade of happiness when in reality she isn't who she appears to be.

Cane Poems

Honestly, I did not really understand much if anything of what I read in the poems for Cane. So I guess I will just talk about "Becky." I guess this poem was written to show us that prejudice does not just lie with the white people but blacks as well. Becky was a white lady who had a child by a black man and now she is hated by all. The tone of this poem is at first very angry and hateful. They pretty much want her dead since she is "unclean" now. But it goes on to show that even though society is racist and prejudice there are still some decent people out there. The one man who built the one house for her to stay in though wanted to remain annonoymous showed that some people still have compasion even though society doesn't. Then the tone goes to almost an appologetic tone as they see the oldest son carrying a baby around letting everyone know she had another child by a black man. But, by the son carrying the child around leads everyone to believe she is dead since no one has seen her and now their hate turns to fear as they feel if she is dead her ghost will be haunting everyone. So it shows you that you need to becareful of what you do and say to people because it will come back to bite you. I know I pretty much summed up the poem but I really did not know what to write since I didn't understand the poems.

2nd Post

Over all I thought that this book was interesting and a good read but the ending was not good at all. What I thought was really interesting about the ending of the book was when he witnessed the lynching. First everyone is meeting at night almost to cover up what they are doing since the man probably never did commit a crime. But after he witnessed it everything about him changed. It hit him with a great force of realization that no matter what he thought or felt the blacks will not be treated the same as the white folks. He said he never in his life saw the transformation of human beings into savage beasts as they yelled burn him. He even went to far as to mention that people would not even treat animals they way they treated this black man.

But the thing I found to be most interesting was the part that held the biggest discussion in class. I believe it starts on page 190 just after the savage killing of the black man. It says " I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted on my forehead." There was a lot of debate whether or not this man was a coward for turning his back on his own people or if we could sympathize for what he is doing. I really don't think he is a coward since he never even had to embrace the black people it was his choice. He didn't find out till he was older that he was different than everyone else. He is mixed half black and half white. No i'm not saying overlook who you are I think everyone should be proud to be what they are. But the narrator is not doing it out of cowardice notions it's almost self preservation. If by looking at him and you cannot tell he is different than everyone else why point it out? But to say he is a coward for turning against the black people can the whites then say he is a coward for turning his back on the white people? It is extremely difficult to embrace fully who you are especially when one part of you is despised by the other part. So, no he is not a coward it is all about saving himself, self preservation everyone will chose that path since it is human nature to save oneself before you save another.

First Blog Assignment

What I found to be interesting about the book we have to read was when he had already move North and in the school he attended they had the meeting. When the man I think it was the principal of the school to have a meeting with his class. He asked all the white children to stand and as he stood with the "whites" the teacher told him to sit down and stand with the rest of them. I found it to be very interesting that for all this time he had no idea that he was "different" from everyone else. Even though he was part white to them he was not equal in a way.
All of a sudden he didn't fit in anywhere. He did not want to be close to the colored students and he felt he didn't belong with the white students. Everything about the way he thought about people even his relationships with his friends have changed. He says now "he is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the view-point of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the view point of a coloured man."(p21). It was almost as if this discovery of him not being white anymore he was no longer a citizen or even a human being for that matter. It's amazing how your mind and your way of thinking can all of a sudden radically change when you realize something that has been kept from you your whole life.

Welcome!

Hey everyone!!!