Month: March 2022

1. The connections is Reed making between the 1978-1992 “retrenchment period” at CUNY and the Covid-19 pandemic has a lot to do with death which was mentioned a lot. Things were not good at all during what is known as the “retrenchment period” because free education was no longer something people would look forward to. “We cannot accept the death of this great, free University because we cannot accept the death of the spirit, the death of aspirations, the death of the future, that will surely follow for our children, the students”. Like this was a sudden change to what was once a free way to receive collegiate education and this changed all the students lives as well. With COVID-19 being the cause of many deaths, this is how Reed would connect the two since CUNY would bring many deaths to student’s futures.
2.  The suggestion that Reed makes for both anti-racist and anti-austerity groups at CUNY is that they take all of the demands at each colleges have then they could come together and resolve it as a whole. “If these ten demands were combined with the demands of Brooklyn College’s Anti-Racist Coalition, CUNY Law, Hunter, Lehman, and beyond (as the Brooklyn PSC chapter suggests), then we could activate them altogether instead of continuing to silo them as “racial justice” or “economic justice” issues respectively”.
3.  Reed used the term “death cult” to show to the readers how all the change in CUNY have really made it unoticeable. It reminds of how the many examples of neoliberalism since there are so many ways the city tries to make itself new. Due to this dealth cult, it made CUNY impossible for students who come from minority communities to afford it. This dealth cult showed how neoliberalism destroyed what was once great to so many people.

CUNY Dream

1. 1. During the “retrenchment period” at CUNY, there were almost 5000 layoffs of faculty and staff causing newly won ethic study classes to close and threats to close CUNY’s like Hostos and Medgar because of the Fall 1976 Tuition policy. Tuition increased and there were budget cuts to the state. These cuts and tuition increases resulted in an increase in neoliberalism and supports the idea that CUNY’s need to have tuition and by doing so creates many borders for people who can not afford to pay these amounts to a college. The massive budget cuts also resulted in staff being laid off, so not only were students not able to continue their education but people lost their jobs. With Covid-19 the economic downfall caused 3000 adjuncts to lose their jobs and hundreds lost their healthcare coverage. Also terminating other campus workers for Fall 2020. These two situations both impacted CUNY in a negative direction but in both cases, students and faculty suffered the most. They lost their jobs, their availability to go to school and their assurance to be healthy. 
   2. Reed uses the term “death cult” in the context that taking away CUNY from students who come from minority communities is beneficial to the people at the top, people with money. Students go to CUNY because it is affordable and it is an opportunity for someone to continue going to school. By making Cuny expensive, the cuny system is killing the hopes of many people and converting it to a system that cares more about the money than people. While this is happening, it was undoing the work of protestors in wanting to keep CUNY free and available for the most part. Death Cult is referring to neoliberalism taking away once again. 
   3. The Fall 2019 Latinx Student Alliance 

   Students wrote “to see themselves in their classes, to see themselves as possible authors of their own texts” 

    In summation, the letter stated that the students want more Latinx and African American literature added to the core requirements. Lehman is 50% made up of Hispanic or Latino students and they want more diversity in their literature. Lehman only had British-focussed Literature and the students didn’t resonate  and connect with that type of literature. Because Lehman was the first institution to form cultural studies in CUNY, it is only fair to diversify these studies for everyone. All in all, students want to increase different cultural studies in Lehman because history can not only be seen in a specific way and they want their education to be broad and diverse from history that erased people from its texts.

 

 

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1AQLnQRAGEEKkq6w3vholPPFTBsviRoGKvb5YD01x684/edit?usp=sharing

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:

1. The connections Reed makes between the 1978-1992 “retrenchment period” at CUNY and the Covid-19 pandemic is how the decrease of funding for CUNY led to the layoff of many workers, including that adjunct professors, as well as negatively affecting the students of CUNY. For instance, during the “retrenchment period,” students were losing the “recently won ethnic studies classes” and there were “threats to close new CUNY colleges,” which would ultimately negatively affect the students taking these classes and those in these colleges. In 2020, “1 in 2 CUNY students already food-and housing -insecure” were now facing “increased unemployment” and the “danger of eviction.” In these two incidents, the lack of government funding to CUNY, caused a negative effect to not solely the staff and faculty that were facing unemployment, but also the students who were facing a decrease in their access to education and their access to security. 
2. Reed uses the term “death cult” in this context as meaning the downfall, or negative effects, that underfunding and ignoring the needs of CUNY has on the city, workers, and students. As neoliberalism grew in the city, the negative effect it had was its disregard in advancing the progress being made in CUNY. This ultimately led CUNY advocates to work even harder in the past decades to try to create a school system that will help out the faculty and students the best they could. The “death cult” then would be allowing the education in CUNY to falter in the face of a lack of resources and assistance. 
3. The Latinx Student alliance campaign to decolonize the Lehman College English curriculum stems from the fact that the vast majority of the undergrad students at the college are underrepresented in the current core English texts and curriculum. They described how they came to make this decision as they tried different ways to help the students be able to have access to texts that reflect them and their experiences. For instance, having a book club, but realizing how being able to have access to texts that represent and reflect them should not be so hard to find in an institution that they pay to attend. Therefore, reaching out and having this campaign that allows these texts to be able to be readily accessible for all undergrad students, not solely to those who need to take a specific class in order to read these stories. 

Idealistic CUNY:

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1-8a_eoPndjXy2ipkbA0VX5OxJPZS-Gij-9KtBGo0KgI/edit?usp=sharing

1. The connections that Reed is making between the 1978-1992 “retrenchment period” at CUNY and the Covid-19 pandemic is the similarity of death. In the 1978-1992 “retrenchment period,” there was a death of free education throughout CUNY. This was devastating because of how many people it impacted. It completely changed a lot of students’ lives. Reed then connects this to the Covid-19 pandemic by emphasizing how there was actual death occurring at CUNY. It wasn’t just a figure of speech at this point, and he uses this again to emphasize how the pandemic impacts so many students. Both points were made to show the negative effects. During both times, many CUNY workers lost their jobs and many CUNY students lost their education.
2. Reed uses the term “death cult” in the context of emphasizing the way CUNY changed. He uses this term to show how CUNY, something that was once known for being free and accessible, became part of neoliberal America. The people who turn public spaces into privately owned businesses are part of the death cult that Reed is referring to. I think this means we lost another thing to money and power. The cult has privatized many things, including education.
3. For both anti-racist and anti-austerity groups at CUNY, Reed suggests that they come together to share ideas instead of focusing on themselves. He says all the programs at CUNY colleges should discuss their feelings and beliefs with each other in order to have more of an affect on the CUNY environment. By bringing all the colleges together, the message could be louder and bigger.

The CUNY of my dreams —

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1P_YmingRR5lel2ugy_pGa8fwHhJYn2AeNZW9ntp7KCc/edit?usp=sharing

 

I lived in New York my whole life, I’ve seen how neoliberalism affects the people in my neighborhood before i moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island back in the 10th grade. There have always been people in my community struggling with health insurance given by the government. Although they some what help, health insurance is hard to acquire for people with low income . They’re also people that are immigrants who don’t receive health insurance at all since they don’t have have a social security to be eligible to apply for it. A couple years later after I’ve moved the pandemic hit. Ever since the pandemic, there has been a supply for a Covid-19 testing kit given to the public by the government for free. It was a great way to support the community considering New York has had one of the most highest rates of residents testing positive for Covid-19 of all states. People would test themselves instead of going out their way and getting tested in public places protecting others to stop the spread of the disease. Soon after, the government had started to place a price on these Covid-19 kits which were originally given free to the community. This isn’t fair for the people that can not afford the kits, especially people who aren’t financially stable. They shouldn’t be paying for something as simple as testing if they have Covid-19. It would actually be more helpful for everyone else if they had the free kit to test themselves in order to protect other people such as family, friends, e.t.c.

An underlying feeling that I have about the politicians that govern our country is how tone deaf they seem to be. It’s as if they care more about securing positions of power than actually enacting policies that would tangibly improve our lives. Of course, the reality is much more complicated than that, but the article “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation” does not do much to convince me otherwise. The article goes into how Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick seems to be at odds with the policies he has supported in the past. For example, Joe Biden played a nontrivial role in the creation of the 1994 Crime Bill, which created rhetoric around black communities being inherently prone to crime. Fast forward to the 2020 election, and Biden was giving speeches that quoted civil-rights anti-capitalist Ella Baker in an attempt to sway black voters.  To me, this shows one of two things; either Joe Biden has sincerely changed his beliefs since the 90s (entirely plausible since he was the vice president for Obama), or he just wants more votes. Considering Biden has never (according to the article) given any clear apologies for his role in implementing these policies, I find the former to be somewhat unlikely. What also doesn’t help his case is, according to the article, “fifty-two per cent of African Americans said that Obama’s policies had not gone far enough to improve their situation,” which was a significant increase from his first year as president. Overall, our country still has a long way to go in terms of representation and equality, and right now I am uncertain if we are even heading in the right direction.

Keeanga-Yamanhatta Taylor’s article, “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation,” portrays the misrepresentation of people of color, specifically African American women, in the U.S. on a social, economic, and political scale. In recent times, we were able to witness the appointment of the United State’s first African and Asian American woman vice president: Kamala Harris. As groundbreaking as this might be, Taylor’s article gives insight on this matter that dives deeper than “the celebrations of symbolic firsts.” As noted in the article, given Biden’s past/rich history of demonizing Black children as “predators on our streets” and sacrificing low-income Black women for political gain, it’s ironic that he was the one to appoint Kamala Harris to this position. Accounting for all this only accentuates Biden’s decision as another calculated, political decision in which he would benefit and gain popularity from. Regardless of his reasoning, this decision propagates the idea of representation into the minds of many citizens. As the article notes, “Black women are, in general, one of the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the United States,” so it’s reasonable to be hopeful of Kamala Harris rising to the vice presidency position. However, this is where the issue of “limits of representation” arises. The abundance of factors to consider in regards to the limitations of representation such as race, gender, social class, and experience make it all the more difficult to truly have the voices of everyone heard. There is so much to account for, but not enough information or understanding to do so. In the case of Kamala Harris, she may be a black female in a position of power, but that does not immediately mean she’ll be able to properly represent “Black women and others stuck at the bottom of the American social order,” nor does it mean she can’t do so. Politicians/officials from all different walks of life may advocate for revolutionary policies, but ultimately it’s their actions that will speak for them and the people they wish to represent, which is a tough task in itself.

The piece of artwork I chose to use is a Netflix drama series called “Cable Girls”. It was made by Ramon Campos and was released on April 28,2017. This show takes place in the 1920’s in Madrid. As Spain has created its first national telephone company four women who work in the company show their progress during the times when women attempt to create equal rights compared to those of men. To me the general message of the show is “Can women have it all?”. The show represents all the struggles that women face  while simply trying to make a living.

I chose this piece of art because as a female, I have always viewed the issue of feminism and sexism as something that is very important. The show perfectly represents women being unequal to men and their journey into becoming more than just women who work under the control of men.  Even though this issue is not as bad as it was before there are still a few places where sexism still occurs. Ramon Campos attempts to expose the truth about feminism that took place in Spain during the 1920’s.

After reading the article “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation” by Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor, I was able to deeply I was able to deeply feel the divide that exists between people. In a society where different people represent different things, the “limits of representation” are found in the race and status of people, not just as individuals, but as a group. The article mentions that “In the 2016 Presidential election, Black voter turnout declined for the first time in twenty years, dropping from sixty-seven to sixty percent. Black women are, in general, one of the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the United States.” which reflects how Black women are not valued, at least At the political level, there is so little they can say and so little they can do to change the outcome. It’s unrealistic to expect the government to go all in on helping poor people, and they have no way of understanding the social pressures on people in struggle, so there is little expectation that people at the top will naturally understand the plight of poor women, which has led to long-standing complaints about the influence of money on politics. Although Obama has done his best to contribute to this group in the past, it still hasn’t improved very much in the back, so there have been criticisms in society that he hasn’t done enough, and at least for now, what politicians are doing in this area does still fall short.