Monday, August 4, 2008

Entry 10

For this entry I'm choosing the movie "Remember the Titans." Because it is a very good example of affirmative action, and desegregation. The movie takes place at the time when T.C. Williams Highschool was integrating their school system, and this movie focuses on the struggles and criticism the team faced. Throughout the movie the boys on the football team face numberous racial factors that jeopardize their will and football season. But by the end of camp Coach Boone had shown the team that even if they didn't like each other, they still had to respect each other, and all the members of the team became friends. But once they got back from camp they realized that they were the only ones ok with the integration. Maybe it was forced upon them? or maybe they were just forced together and relized that eventhough their skin colors are different, they are not that much different as people.

This relates to the class material because of the affirmative action of the forced integration. Neither the black parents, or the white parents were happy about their kids going to school with each other, but the law said they had to. In Brodkins piece, the Jews and the whites did not necesarrily want to be living in the same neighborhoods, but once the war was over and Jews were living with the whites, they realized that it wasn't that bad and they weren't that different of people.

Entry 9



The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote, which is a form of affirmative action, where the law requires a group of people be able to do certain things they couldn't before. I chose this because I think its amazing that women didn't get the right to vote until the 1920's and even then they still were denied most of the time until women entered the workforce in masses during WWII.

This relates to course material because I feel this relates to Brodkins story of the Jews being able to move into white neighborhood because they were white. Finally in the 1920's women recieved the right to vote eventhough their male counterparts have been voting since the beginning of America. This fact comes as a surprise to think that white women weren't able to vote but black males (if they met certain stipulations) were able to.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Knous Entry 8

I chose this painting of the slave market in early times because I feel it shows a great deal of the agony and pain that went along with the slave market and trade. I found this photo online after a short google search. This painting shows how the African Americans were in a gloomy kind of mood beacuase of the harsh living conditions and lack of any type of luxury. You see the folks just simply standing around, to me this shows that the people in this painting are just waiting on something, but no one really knows what so they are just standing around with the nothing that they have in the New World. You can see a couple people bent over in either pain, or hunger or emotional pain, which also shows the pure brutality of the slave trade, possibly not even from being beat but the trade itself being so brutal it breaks the spirit of some people. One also can see some smoke arising from the behind a few people to me this comes off as that is smoke from a fire to keep warm, cook food, and possibly dry wet clothing. The picture in itself with the dark colors shows the gloomy times in which the slave trade took place. This relates to the material because the material shows how brutal slavery was in words, this picture shows a portion of how brutal slavery was visually.

Knous Entry 8

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Knous Entry 7


For this week I am going to discuss how the movie 300 relates to the course material, in the form of brutality towards slaves. In the movie Xerxes was the ruler of the Persian empire who was trying to conquer the world. Xerxes had many "followers" who were whipped, beaten, tortured, even killed when they did not please Xerxes. His "followers" were portrayed in chains and tattered clothing all of which had facial expressions of distinct anquish. This relates directly to the material where the landowners would make conditions so hard on their slaves they would always have a look of distain on their face, only to break it in sarcasm when the salves started to sing to keep their moral from completely breaking. I selected this particular movie because when one thinks about the movie 300, they normally think about Larinitis and his brave men, but no one really thinks about the slaves Xerxes tortured and beat, just like the slaves of early America.

Knous Entry 7

Monday, July 14, 2008

Knous Entry 4

I found this cartoon online at cartoonstock.com and I selected it because I do enjoy humor in pictures. The cartoon is simply two men walking out of a coffee shop with a sign that says "milk, sugar, valium." One man says to the other "just don't let the old man get you down."
This connects to the material in the way of a person can be priveleged in certain ways but not feel it. These two men in the cartoon are both white, nondisabled males, and if one assumes they are both heterosexual, they would be a +4 in the matrix of privelage. Although being a +4 they are still walking out of a store that specializes in caffeine and anti-depressants talking about not letting "The Man" get them down. "The Man" referring to the system in which they work and live in and are obviously feel oppressed by. Judging these men by their clothes they have pretty decent jobs too. So, two white, nondisabled heterosexual men with jobs they presumable go to with suites on, one would think that these men would not be feeling oppressed what so ever, but by the caption they are. This clearly shows how simply because you can be privileged in all areas of the matrix doesn't mean you will feel privileged, as Johnson had stated.