My Class

Jahmal Butcher

If I were designing English 2150 I would slightly chance the current course theme, Race and Justice, in to Race and Injustice. My reason for this is that I feel that race and injustice seem to be more linked together than race and justice. I would use Ward Churchill’s writings again because they properly express injustice. The Hip Hop Theory of Justice also seems like something that should be kept due to the fact that it is relatable to many of the students because they actually know of the people that are talked about in that article. If I had to add a book to the reading it would have to be “How the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou. My reason for selecting this book is because it is a great autobiography of Maya Angelou’s life and the hard times that she went through. This book clearly and decisively illustrates what blacks went through during segregation. It also shows how Maya Angelou over comes racism through the use of literature. I feel that a visual component is vital to this course. I feel that watching short documentaries is really needed.

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My Own English Course

The course I am currently taking is english 2150. A class which mainly revolves around the themes of Race and Justice.  If I were given a chance to design this course, I would not change the themes first of all. Race and Justice are topics that society has been facing for centuries. These are very controversial topics, what makes them interesting is that people have there own point of views and opinions towards what is justice and racist. Throughout history we have read about events and times in which race and justice were very big issues in society, this is what keeps people interested in learning more about why people faced then and still face now unjust punishment.

While designing this course I would keep the most important readings that I think is interesting and takes places in varies parts of history which would help students understand more about Race and Justice . Readings such as “A Hip Hop Theory” and the articles by Ward Churchill are great , also to the Course reading list i would add a blog-post. This would help students keep in touch about critical Racial and Justice issues. Here they can talk about their views of what is race and what is Justice.

In addition to the blog-post, i would include several website links to articles and information students can use to write their papers on. This would make it easier for them to search and find the answers to the questions that they might have.My English course would be a fun and ongoing learning experience about Race and Justice.

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My English Class

If I were designing this English course I would keep the theme of Race and Justice. They are two very controversial topics that go well together. Race and Justice have been intertwined for all of history. What makes this theme so interesting is the fact that there are so many perceptions of justice. The lack of one universal definition of justice is what makes this the controversial topic that it is today. In designing this course I would keep most of the readings we have read already. Prison Writings, In defense of Injustice, Ward Churchill’s articles, and A Hip Hop Theory of Justice are all interesting readings. The fact that they all take place in different parts of history is very crucial. I believe that it is important to not only discuss race and justice in present times but also in the past. With those readings we see how race and justice evolved throughout times. In addition to those readings, I would also add some readings on how race and justice have affected sports.  When watching professional sports nowadays it is such a diverse field than it was half a century ago. I would also add video clips that can relate. There has also been a lot of controversy over different races getting accepted into colleges with questionable grades. These are some things I would add if this were my English course.

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A Time to Kill

Recently, we read some articles, which are wonderful article to understand based idea about race and justice but I feel those are a little bit far from our realities now, so I would like to recommend a closer book to our lives as source. When we think about justice and race, I think it is one of good way to learn the law case. Law case is clear to show the conclusion and their back grounds( of course sometime not so clear); however, the law should be a kind of symbol of government, justice and fair for people and it is familiar to us. I read and saw the movie of the story is including race and justice in law  in America( I read and saw it in Japanese), the title is “A Time to Kill”.
A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham.
The story made me think deeply about “what does it mean that people judge people?” and “what is justice?” thorough the murder happening on racism back ground.
The story: Two white supremacists come across a 10-year-old black girl named Tonya (Rae’Ven Larrymore Kelly) in rural Mississippi. They violently rape and beat Tonya and dump her in a nearby river after a failed attempt to hang her. She survives and the men are arrested. Word spreads of the brutal rape. Tonya’s father, Carl Lee Hailey, seeks out Jake Brigance, an easygoing white lawyer. Carl Lee is worried that the men may be acquitted, due to deep-seated racism in the Mississippi Delta area. Brigance admits the possibility. Hailey acquires an M16 rifle, goes to the county courthouse and opens fire, killing both rapists and unintentionally injuring Deputy Looney, with a ricochet. Carl Lee is soon arrested without resistance.

I was considered by this story that revenge murder was really not good or not, also I was sufferd to think about the relation between racism and the case of murder. There are no right things? or everybody is right?
This story makes us think what a real justice is and makes us the opportunities to think what our justice is. For people who had have hard discrimination from victims, I wonder if it fair and justice for them to be had a decision by justice of court.
It is good source to think about what our justice is for us.

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Media’s Makeover vs. Race & Justice

Madhavi Rampersaud

I consider myself a very outgoing and social person. I like to stay connected with other people and make new friends whenever I can.  One of the biggest influences in my life that allow me to do this is the media. After all, advertisements promote a lot of great things whether it’s technology, gaming, fashion, music, etc. The media is a vital part of today’s modern society. I think the evolution of the media would be a cool theme for an English class.

I’m not actually sure what type of reading we could use to analyze such a topic in class. However, some of the ideas I have revolve around comparing social media in today’s society to the type of media used back in the days. For example, in terms of advertising certain products on television, our society is very comfortable with using sensuality to convey its message and promote its idea. This is one aspect of the evolution of media. Society was not always comfortable with discussing such private thoughts or concepts. We could also analyze posters for movies and videos relating to music or fashion. Fashion ads and commercials have also changed over time so those are also good examples.

Since society is constantly changing and adapting to new technologies and advancements, learning more about it in class is a great of understanding the world. It gives us, as students, a different perspective of life. Previously in my psychology class, we discussed how certain media influences like commercials make an impact in the choices we make in our lives. It can be as simple as deciding what type of clothes to wear, what type of candy to buy, or something as complex and important as who to vote for in a presidential campaign. I definitely would like to learn about media in an English class. There is a lot we can say about it and we have a vast amount of sources to use to interpret it including books, newspapers, television, internet,etc.

Nonetheless, in regards to the current them that we have in our English class as of now, I would have liked to read more current articles on race and justice. I really enjoyed reading Leonard Peltier’s “Prison Writings”. It was an insightful book that discusses a very interesting topic. I also enjoyed reading Paul Butler’s ” A Hip Hop Theory of Justice”. I decided to go ahead and read the article entitled “Killing Rage” by bell hooks. I like reading about updated readings on important topics. I always learn about race and justice in school and I wanted this class to be different in regards to the material we read. So far it has been pretty interesting but more hands on reading would be fun as well. If we had a magazine that we were required to read and post blogs on, that would be something interesting as well. Another idea that I personally find interesting is if we were all assigned a video weekly that discussed the topic of race and justice and worked in groups to analyze it. That would definitely be insightful. I also like the idea of working with different groups rather than with the same people all the time to get a better understanding and perspective of working with different people. There is always a different perspective just waiting to be voiced. In regards to the videos, they wouldn’t have to necessarily be professional videos that relate to the government or political figures. Simple videos that also depicted race, justice, and injustice in everyday life would be a good way of comparing and contrasting the way race and justice have changed over time in society.

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Sandra Levkovich                                                  English 2150, Section LP13B  

 

02/10/2010

 

                                                    Unexpected Thoughts    

 

 

        From what we read in class and from what I already know about race and justice. I am appalled to know that our government, our country could be so cruel. I thought we gave everyone free rights, freedom and all that good stuff that the U.S always prides on, but from reading Churchill’s “Confronting Columbus Day”, my mind began to slowly change about the U.S  i alwought Columbus Day as a day where the greatest country was found by this  man. This great country that fathers all my family that went through persecution in communist Russia as being jewish. My family ran away from their homes to get the rights they deserved in America. My parents had a choice to go to other countries to start a family and give his children rights thats he and my mother never had and he chose the U.S because this country was known for freedom and rights. However theway that Columbus treated Native Americans, it was their home at first and he just took it from them and created basically a massacre of all the tribes and people. Churchill even compares Christopher Columbus to Hitler in his essay, which from the facts, I completely agree with him.

th riots, protest and boycotting of the Columbus Day parade in October 12, 1991, was understandable. I understand why some people got upset; your celebrating a day the country was found but your also celebrating a murder who killed almost killed a mankind. They had every right to be upset. Churchill was correct when stating that the judges and courts should agree with protesters. Its like having a Hitler Day parade almost the same concept as the Columbus Day parade. You always think the good of people, I always thought of Columbus as not only the founder of a country but also a person who gave people an chance in the long years to come for our country, however, when someone give you a different side, your whole perception changes. 

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For ‘Hispanic’ check ‘Other’: Census controversy

The WB11 website displays an article about the 2010 Census, and some controversies surrounding the racial categories. As if it weren’t already difficult for some people to fit themselves into a clean cut box of with a label, it turns out that people of Latin ethnicity don’t have anything to check off this year. The article mentions how many people which identified themselves as part of this large ethnic group were left with no choice but to check off ‘other’. Although I oppose racial profiling of any kind, be it for the census even, yet I cannot but agree with the people who were left unhappy. Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the United States, and Latin-Americans make up a large majority of the population. I feel it is some sort of blunder, since the article mentions that categories on the census included different nationalities as a race for Asians. What’s more horrible, is that the Census preparers blamed it on a strict budget, and that they couldn’t include every possible category out there. Well…I think that people are already overly sensitive when it comes to race. However it is one thing to discriminate against someone because of their race, but another to completely exclude a whole group, as if though they didn’t exist.  A parallel to this story is the public rally for a better immigration reform, so that all illegal immigrants living in the U.S. may become legal, since they contribute to society, yet are intelligible to receive any government benefits. In cities like New York this is a big problem, since most of the illegal workers here are of Latin background, and are completely unaccounted for by government.

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-census-hispanics,0,4163472.story

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-immigration-rally,0,6829800.story

Image credited to http://www.asbarez.com/

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Old Habits Die Hard

DanLin O.

\”Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias (NY Times)\”

In my previous blog post, I wrote about Tim Wise’s essay “Selling the Police.” Wise gives his opinions about the police and racial profiling in his essay. He finds the police unjust for targeting blacks for crimes that are more often committed by whites. Wise supports his reasons with statistics and facts. A current event about the arrest of an Harvard professor is just one of many examples of racial profiling by the police. Police officers would not hesitate to arrest blacks, even if they teach at Harvard University.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. taught at Harvard for almost twenty years. He was arrested for “being disorderly” and for lawfully residing in his home by Sergent James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department. Crowley was notified of two black men who looked like they were trying to break into Gate’s house. What really happened was that Gates returned from a trip to find that his door was jammed, and he had to force the door open with the aid of his cab driver. Although Gates proved his residency by showing his identification cards, Crowley seemed dubious still and proceeded with his investigation. Gates became enraged and yelled Crowley for being racist. As a result, Gates was handcuffed and jailed.

Now, was arresting Gates really necessary? Gates was not doing anything illegal. In fact, he was hardly doing anything wrong! All Gates did was yell at Crowley–he did not physically attack or do anything to harm the officer. People scream at other people all the time, but that does not mean they should be jailed. This event brings up the issue of racial profiling. Maybe it was because Gates was black that he got arrested. Tim Wise did say in his essay that blacks were more prone to be linked to a crime. However, any way you look at this situation, Gates did not deserve to be arrested.

Political cartoon about police officers

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Finally Recognized

cgarris

“A Hip-Hop’s Theory of Justice” by Paul Butler, discusses the relation of Hip-Hop and the criminal justice system. One part of the essay that stood out to me was when Butler began to discuss how the government doesn’t acknowledge the fact that everyone is affected by the incarceration of a person in that community, which is usually occupied by African Americans and Latinos. In a sense that says the government doesn’t care about these minority communities. This reminded me of an article that I read in The AM New York newspaper this morning. “Beauty in the Eye of Bed-Stuy” by Taneish Hamilton and Garett Sloane discussed how the Fulton Street shopping area in Brooklyn, NY is now being revitalized because of a new improvement district. This is important because this is a predominantly African American neighborhood that is seen as “ghetto”. The area was “garbage-lined” but is now being cleaned as a part of the district’s mission to make the shopping area more appealing for business. According to the article, there are hired security and street cleaners, which have already shown evident signs of progress. This means that there is some type of recognition being made to the smaller, less government or tourist affiliated areas of New York. The areas that are usually just deemed ghetto and dirty are actually being cared about. I feel as though this relates to Butler’s essay because it seems as though his point is being recognized and/or tested in a way that shows that the government actually cares about the African American communities and what goes on in every part of society.

"Fulton Street"

This is a photo of Fulton Street in Brooklyn, NY that was taken from www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com

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Paul Butler’s Hip Hop Theory of Justice

dpierce

In “Hip Hop Theory of Justice”, Paul Butler discusses some of the negative aspects of the hip hop culture. Alot of people criticize rap music and hip hop culture as a whole. People say a lot of negative things about it; ranging from all sorts of things like it promoting materialism, it allegedly promotes gun violence, the songs influence the kids to become drug dealers, and it objectifies women (as though there aren’t any rock videos that objectify women, like the band, Drowning Pool’s video, “Step Up”). Another example would be the nu-metal rock band KoRn’s music video, “Twisted Transistor”. Another song that they made named “Thoughtless” is a song about how a kid gets revenge on the classmates at his school who bullied on him. It’s basically a negative song. Part of the lyrics is “…pull the trigger and you’re down…” If someone is being bullied, they shouldn’t get back at the bullies who picked on him by getting a gun from home or where ever and killing them. Another song they made named “A.D.I.D.A.S.” is an abbreviation for “All Day I Dream About Sex”. Even the artist Marilyn Manson is an example. He claims he’s a reverend in the Church of Satan. Basically, there is negativity in every music genre. There may be rap music videos and songs that are provocative. There are some other rock songs out there that don’t send out positive messages to its listeners.  Hip hop may not be perfect but neither are other genres of music.

These are the links to the videos and songs that I was discussing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTvDItamcfc       (Drowning Pool- “Step Up”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVPvzX-AeSM       (Korn- “Thoughtless”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCPYGKAUMjY     (Korn- “Twisted Transistor”)

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBAfIFStgmY        (Korn- “A.D.I.D.A.S.”)

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