How is the world doing???/ Well, the second assignement requires that I read a classmates blog and out of the many blogs I read from my classmates, I chose to respond to Nicolestarr52’s. Nicole’s blog spoke of a multi-racial background which interested me because even though she is multi-racial, she only is multi-racial she claims to identify herself as African American, because she feels more comfortable with African Americans. That statement sounds as if it is African Americans who are more willing to accept her as an equal. Nicole’s anecdote about her first day of 5th grade in which a little boy spit in her hair and called her a nigger also gained empathy from me. This story caught my attention. She was hurt even though at the time she didn’t know what the word meant. After hearing an explanation from her mother, her views on racism were forever formed, and I got the feeling that it is something she absolutely has zero tolerance for. Incidents like that constantly remind me, that the word is more than just a word, but a mountain of hate and ugly.
I am taking African American studies 440 in an attempt to learn more about why the black community seems to lag behind others in the United States. Many social problems are formed during childhood, and perhaps if some of the issues can be addressed, I can help some of tomorrow’s youth not fall into the same traps (including my own children…. when I have them).
Spike Lee in Four Little Girls, went out with the same hope, to inform the world. The church bombing, like the children living in Henry Horner, are a part of a history that many in the world do not know about. Lee seriously wanted to inform the public that things during that time were worst that just being told to change seats on a bus. Reading There Are No Children Here I do not feel pity for the children of Henry Horner. It does however give me a drive to want to do something, to help, to change the way these children live. In a neighborhood where birthday parties are ruined gang shootouts it becomes hard not to feel bad for anyone in that situation, but I do not believe Alex Kotlowitz mission was to get a tear out of any of his readers. I do however believe he hoped to educate the world to the problems of our public housing system, school systems, and the effects it has on those individuals who have been left with little to nothing. Perhaps if Kotlowitz painted the children as hopeless I would be able to see them as something to pity, but he does a good job of giving them small things to look for. The children’s favorite song was LL Cool J, I Need Love, a song which I like a lot. Pharaoh, loved school, and had the faith in himself that would take him to high heights.If there was one thing to feel pity for from Kotlowitz’s ethnography is would be the quote found on page 29, “There are a lot of people in the projects who say they’re not going to do drugs, that they’re not gonna drop out, that they won’t be on the streets. But they’re doing it now. Never say never”. The fact that many fall into traps knowingly is a sad thing to feel pity for, but otherwise, I believe Kotlowitz wants to gather empathy; empathy being: the identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives.
