Author: Charlotte Lin

I took this photo from one of the art museums in Savannah, Georgia, in 2017. This piece of artwork just made me feel special because without inspecting it closely, you won’t find out the little nuances and details in the work. This piece was created by sand and a model of a person who works at the farm. The original photo did not look like this; it did not have enough shadow on the picture and the colors of the photo were not bright or obvious enough to pick up the detail that is a person’s imprint on the sand due to work. I purposely add more light on the table and more shadow on the background in order to emphasize the person’s imprint. With this change, the atmosphere becomes different; it makes viewers more focused on this piece of artwork. In addition, it also has an effect similar to that of a performer on a stage, as if this whole table is the stage for this worker to put his/her imprint on wherever  he/she decides to go. In my opinion, the contrast between the color brightness can cause a direct vision conflict. When I was there, the person was small enough to notice what was that. I believe that the artwork expresses the message to viewers that as long as you work hard enough, you will leave an imprint anywhere you want.

I did exercise No. 5 “to restructures your essay and discover new ideas in the process”. As I was on the progress of building an argument for my essay, I found that I was struggling on having a clear thesis statement, and also do not know how to use the sources that I found correctly. The exercise helped me to clear up what I really should work on on the essay. For instance, the original research question that I had was what it really is to be a real rule follower, unfortunately, there are limited sources online that talk about it, and I do not have a clear answer for it either. The first draft was written based on the limited sources I had found with an unclear thesis statement. So I start breaking each paragraphs apart and rearrange them, suddenly, everything just make sense now —> there is no standard answers for being a real rule followers. Each one has different perspectives on each individual and also people follow the rules or break the rules under different circumstances, we cannot say that if you did not follow the rules, you are not a good person.

1. After 1973, the federal government ushered in a comprehensive privatization policy, claiming that only by allowing unelected emergency financial control boards to cut public services, such as free college education, could New York City be saved from bankruptcy. But along with the cuts to public services, they are also reducing the number of teachers. They did this not only because the workers refused to pay, but also because they wanted the government to put pressure on the workers to pay, but also to warn them of the consequences of non-payment through the unemployment of teachers in the schools.Reed believes that as long as it’s about national interest, economic issues, the government will be the first to take public universities to make up for it 

3. The LSA wrote in a very respectful format about adding diversity to the English program. The LSA represents a student body that believes that English classes should not be knowledge of one traditional way of teaching English to students. They even use Lehman College as the first institution to bring forth cultural studies in CUNY as an example to make the school agree to add more diversities to English courses. Whenever we talk about English, we will always think about the English from Britain because of the history. We are learning Shakspeare’s artworks, the most classic one is called Romeo and Juliet. People will just think that the real good English is from Britain or by White people. LSA thinks that English literature is not just from Britain, but also from the minorities. LSA wants students to see the diversity of English, to let them know the history of minories behind English literature. Each minority has their own English literature. 

4. It should not be reduced to merely taking on the task of setting the direction of the movement or quietly following orders, but rather building active, strategic collaboration across differences, seizing this rare moment to achieve multi-issue change that was unimaginable even a year ago. Such as labor movement or protest, if those anti-racist and anti-austerity groups do not start fighting for themselves, they will be forgotten, no one will really go solving the problems for them.

My dream CUNY:

In the 2016 presidential election, black voter turnout fell for the first time in two decades, from 67 percent to 60 percent, and Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate in order to get more votes. Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate not only because of her strong family background and outstanding qualifications, but also because she is a black woman. Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris for the sake of voting, he did not really understand the suffering and pain that black women face even though he was the VP of Obama. Joe Biden only needed a black female representative to add to his campaign and chose Kamala Harris, not really meant to solve problems for black women and be a voice for them. I personally believe that in Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, the limits of representation means that people who look like a certain race do not mean that they can act exclusively in the interest of their race. Having people of the same color does not mean that they are treated the same, that they share the same experiences. Naturally, there is no way to directly address the problem. For example, in the article the author mentions that a black person said that Obama’s policies are not enough to improve their situation. That refers that President Obama is also limits of representation. So even if Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris to be his VP, Harris background is completely different from that of the average black woman, and her level of education is also different, she, too, is limits of representations.

The title of my TV show is “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. It was made on October 15, 2000. The show talks about Larry David as a fictionalized version of himself. Like the real-life David, the character is well known as the co-creator and main co-writer of the highly successful sitcom Seinfeld. Although Larry maintains an office, he is rarely shown working. The show’s plots often center around everyday interactions between Larry and his friends, acquaintances, and occasionally strangers. Conflicts in the show are frequently sparked by Larry’s social unorthodoxy, particularly his often tactless manner of speaking and his stubbornness. The show’s name means completely different thing than what it actually meant. Many people seem to live their lives projecting false enthusiasm, which Larry David believes is used to imply that “they are better than you”. The title also urges the audience not to expect too much from the show. Just like what happened to Larry David in the show, there is nothing that he cannot go through. So I believe that we can make things work out as long as we want to solve the problems and there will be a chance for us to solve it. These little shows can show us so many lives experiences by the little things happened on each episodes.

I love this TV show is because that the most important feature of this TV show is that it is a show driven by various coincidences, so in order to contribute to this coincidence there will be a lot of hard-wired plots, such as characters suddenly appearing for no reason or behaving in a way that people would not normally do, so that people can immediately see through the creator’s intentions. Another point is that the coincidences mentioned above are reflected in the form of misunderstandings, so most of the dialogues in the film are actually Larry’s various arguments to clarify himself, and obviously not everyone likes to watch arguments. Of course, in order to increase the drama of the story, Larry eventually took the blame.

I chose “Untitled” by David Wojnarowicz

1. I love how the author put this child in between the lines and made the child fit into the whole context. When I saw the artifact, the image of this child was forever stuck in my mind. It definitely helps to understand the context. The little boy in this picture doesn’t match the content at all. The text is all bloody, sad and miserable, but the little boy is smiling. There could be another purpose of placing this boy into the middle of the context is trying to break all the difficulties, be positive to life. The author writes down the background basically according to a timeline, from growing up to death. It mentions all the negative aspects of life, which also relates to the choice of color of art that the author makes – black and white, either alive or dead. 
2. When it comes to social issues, every day is actually a day to discover something new. Everyone has a process to grow up. Our whole life is unknown and we don’t know what will happen in the future. This society is not fair, they will judge everyone with colored, snobbish eyes. And those who are not seen by them will experience a lot of hardship.
3. It turns out that words are not the only way to express social issues, but also the details of artworks can express social issues to the fullest. Color, design, and element can all influence the issue that society existed. And art is a really powerful way to make an impact on people’s minds.

While reading “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès, and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakoves’ articles, I realized how governments take advantage of the poor communities/minorities to develop what they want those areas to be. In other words, the government is trying to make rich people happier so that they can receive more money from them by using those resources from the poor communities. 

“Growing up in a communist, anticolonial, and feminist family, I learned early that the environment had been shaped by slavery and colonialism — a reading of space that gave meaning to where cities were built, where poor people lived, and how the large sugarcane fields, rivers, mountains, volcanos, and beaches had been inscribed in the colonial and postcolonial economy” (Francoise Vergès). Slavery and colonialism are the foundation of the environment, so people are hard working will develop the area that they live in and create value out of it. Unfortunately, the government just doesn’t care about what they did, they only see the money opportunity or how much money they can make from these areas. Since the minority live there, the living condition definitely is low and probably everything just costs a low price. They just started building those chemical factories and just released the harmful gasses. Then the minorities’ health was inaccessible. Just like what the article said: “Some of his old neighbors are leaving, and they’re being replaced by those who can afford to take on the risk of living in a flood-prone area” (Sophie Kasakove). The minority houses were taken by the rich people, or house agency. Just because they see the money opportunity from it. No matter what consequences that minorities will face later on. It is not just about the race, it is about who does government is trying to get close to and satisfied their needs.