Author Archives: c.win

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“We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue” by Curtis Mayfield

“We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue” by Curtis Mayfield was released in 1970. The song as a whole is trying to bring attention upon issues that are prevalent in society. It is about discrimination that African Americans face because they have a darker complexion than that of others. Mayfield wants to show his passion in what he believes in, which is that all humans are the same on the inside, through this song. An interesting aspect of the song is the instrumental break around half way in the song. It starts after Mayfield sings, “I know you won’t mind if I tell the whole story”. This instrumental break is played with percussion and brass instruments in a jazz manner for about a minute and a half. I thought this was interesting because I wondered why it was included in the song. By the way he sang the song with the tone he used and took deep breaths, listeners could tell how passionate he felt about the issues mentioned throughout the song. It didn’t seem necessary to add in the instrumental break, but maybe, to Mayfield, it was. Playing instruments possibly allowed Mayfield to release all the negative energy inside of him and relieve the stress he felt. This instrumental break changed how I heard the song the second time because I tried to focus in on this break and try to listen for any techniques that could indicate more of what he felt.

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Rough Draft

During the 20th century, there were acts of discrimination against African Americans. Under the law, they were “free”, but in reality, they weren’t. There were still limitations to what they can do and dream of. They were still victims of violence and discrimination because of the color of their skin. There was so much anger and violence during those years, and people were losing sight of what the goal was until Martin Luther King Jr. led the way. Martin Luther King Jr. was a natural born leader who gave people a sense of hope and led a clear path way to reach the goals of human equality. He conveyed these ideas through his speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”. In this speech, King passionately discusses his view on human equality. He believes that all humans should have the same rights and be treated equally. His allusions to many things such as God, the Memphis Sanitation Strike, slavery in Egypt, and Declaration of Independence provide evidence to back up Martin Luther King Jr.’s claims and show how inequality affects all of us, even those who aren’t directly affected by racism. Despite all the challenges spoken about in his allusions, Martin Luther King Jr. shows that these challenges are possible to overcome with steady focus on the main goal. Martin Luther King Jr. uses vertical movement and abrupt stops in his speech to mirror what he believes is the right way for people to fight for what they want, which is to keep moving forward in life and to stop for a moment to think about the purpose of these actions before moving forward again.

 

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Introduction

Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech before he died was “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”. In this speech, King passionately discusses his view on human equality. He believes that all humans should have the same rights and be treated equally. Martin Luther King Jr. convincingly argues for equal rights by using many literary devices throughout his speech such as foreshadowing, allusions, motifs, and themes. Although all of these devices work well in his speech, through allusions to past events such as slavery in Egypt, Martin Luther King Jr. most strongly influences listeners of his beliefs to the point that people will reflect upon these allusions, and change their own views about them.

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Thesis

Although Martin Luther King Jr.’s foreshadowing in “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” was effective, Martin Luther King Jr.’s allusions were what made the speech powerful in displaying his feelings about the inequality African Americans face in his speech.

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Down

The song “Down” by Blink 182 shows an aspect of being down in the sense that the artist feels heartbroken and melancholy. The reason why the artist feels this way is that he lost the relationship he had with a loved one and wants to have it back. He says, “Tidal waves they rip right through me. Tears from eyes worn cold and sad. Pick me up now, I need you so bad.” He clearly wants her in his life the way it was before and he feels so much pain from being away from her. He also says, “This can’t be the end” that shows he doesn’t want this separation from her to be the end of their relationship. A specific element of the song that I found important was how the song crescendos at the part when he says, “Tidal waves they rip right through me. Tears from eyes worn cold and sad. Pick me up now, I need you so bad.” The reason is that he strongly expresses his emotion of feeling down or somber and he wants to let his feelings that he bottled up out. The sudden raise in volume and instruments playing gives the listeners a sense of his emotion of sadness and desperation to have what he really wants, which is affection from his love.

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Introduction and Conclusion

Introduction

Dear Baruch faculty, administrators, and alumni,

Thank you for taking your time to listen to our concerns for the school. Before immediately discussing them, I would like you to close your eyes and imagine a perfect college. It has a beautiful scenery with freshly cut grass and evergreen trees on campus, where students can easily take a five minute walk to from their dorms. There aren’t any problems going from class to class.  It has the best faculty, dedicated to students’ needs and learning. The students are in an environment that removes stress and allows them to completely focus on their studies. This perfect college or a college close to the ideal college is not impossible to achieve if we put all of our efforts to do so by adding greenery on campus(planting trees and placing flower pots in classes), improving dorms (either changing the location or providing shuttle buses), and improving traffic flow(fixing elevators and delegating traffic) that would ultimately help students’ academic performance.

Conclusion

If we can fix these issues in our college, there is little doubt that people will not enjoy being on the campus more and most likely improve academically since they have fewer things to worry. Students can focus on their school work and not go through the hassle of huge crowds and walking up many flights of stairs with changes in the vertical movement. Students can also get to class quicker if dorms were much closer or there were shuttle buses available. In addition, students can improve their mental state with more greenery on campus. Improving the campus in such ways will benefit everyone. Let’s not allow anyone to say you all are anything like congress. Thank you again for your time!

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MLK’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King Jr. protested against how little African American sanitation workers make. He said that to be successful in gaining equality in the world, people must do nonviolent acts. He said that only though nonviolent acts will people be heard. He supported boycotts and said that if people worked together to protest against the injustice that African Americans face, they will eventually be heard whether industries wanted to hear it or not. In addition, he brought up the First Amendment rights that he believes should apply to everyone in America. At the end of his speech, Martin Luther King Jr. said that he is not afraid of death, which is an interesting aspect to me. He said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life–longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. (Yeah) And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. (Go ahead) And I’ve looked over (Yes sir), and I’ve seen the Promised Land. (Go ahead) I may not get there with you. (Go ahead) But I want you to know tonight (Yes), that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. [Applause] (Go ahead, Go ahead) And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. [Applause].” I think the mountaintop he refers to is the sight of peace and justice, which isn’t easy to achieve in a world of struggle and misery. This interesting aspect of his speech strongly showed how passionate Martin Luther King Jr. was about achieving equality and peace in the world. It was almost as if it was his fate to give out this speech to inspire others in his nonviolent protests because he dies the day after he gives this speech. What makes his statement so powerful is that he said he’s happy because he knows that peace will eventually come and that is why he is not afraid to die.

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Baruch Space (Background/History)

Many colleges and universities have an open space where students can interact in. Some colleges such as Manhattan’s College use their commons to connect their north and south campus. Connecting these areas will allow students to interact with each other in between classes. In these open spaces, students can hang out or even host events. Students can socialize and share their cultural ideas with each other, which is something Manhattan college values a lot.
In addition to using commons for socializing, colleges use it to care for the environment. For example, Boston universities use their free space to care for plants, design landscape, and hold service events. These colleges spread greenery around their campuses and offices. Students can work together to help the environment through the use of available commons.
Colleges also use their yard areas for sport activities. For example, Union college uses their fields to practice playing football. The yard area is helpful in improving football skills that would help in winning games. If colleges won more games, then they would have better reputations and more respect. In addition, sports can help school spirit, which would help the school environment In general.
Baruch students lack such commons that improve student interaction and the campus environment. Baruch students should have access to traditional visions that other colleges like Manhattan college, Union College, and others have that would impact the school’s performance.

Sources:
1)
http://manhattan.edu/giving/student-commons-campaign/student-commons-location
2)
http://www.4seasonsgreenery.com/boston_plantscaping/plantcare_special_events_colleges_universities
3)
https://www.ucollege.edu/about-us/buildings-landmarks-and-maps

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Nature

“Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses what Emerson feels about the relationship between nature and mankind. He says that one can only see what nature truly is after being in complete isolation with nature. In nature, things can be perceived as spiritual such as the stars, which represent God or heavenly bodies. In addition, nature is not easily grasped and can’t be grasped through parts of it. People who can see nature as a whole are the poets in the world. Another point Emerson brings up is that if people allow themselves to be part of nature, they will feel peace with it and their inner selves, despite any conflicts they have been dealing with.

An interesting aspect of this piece is when Emerson says, “ The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child” in the second paragraph or the mention of the word “children.” He doesn’t explicitly say why he believes children truly know the meaning of nature and why adults have to have a child-like mind to know what nature profoundly means. I interpreted the view of children to mean the view of nature with a simple mind. Children usually live their lives spontaneously and look at things for how they simply appear to be. Maybe the author is trying to say that people have to view nature simply for what it is and not think too abstractly about it. This aspect makes readers wonder how profound is the difference between an adult’s mind and a child’s mind. Because of this aspect, everything I read after this quote related back to children and how nature is not easily perceived.

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The Food Sucks

Esteemed administrators and faculty, fellow students, and members of the Baruch community, the food sucks! It’s too expensive. It’s not good quality. It’s not what we paid for. It should be better. It should be for free. I would rather starve!