Roanin Fisher
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Since Europeans first began settling in america they have been killing or mistreating the native american tribes, whether it be for security of their settlements or just because racism was very present at that point in time. The culture that the native Americans had was strong, they took care of their land and their family's, and they were living somewhat peacefully besides the occasional war with a neighboring tribe, however the "you don't look like us therefore you are below us" mentality of early settlers was present all the way into the 1800's. When not to long ago our nation was putting bounties on the scalps of the people who should still be living on the land we stole from them it confuses me, how was it possible that we were that evil less that 200 years ago, it disgusts me. Sadly I'm not sure there is many lessons we can learn from much from the native american culture in regards to ethnic/religious conflicts today but i think we can learn from our past mistakes, mistakes that still are having repercussions today, and hopefully continue to better our country and distance ourselves from our cruel beginnings.
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Let America be America Again by Langston Hughes was easily the most interesting thing we read this week, his writing style is very precise at picking apart what he saw as wrong in our country at the time he was alive and all of the writing we as a class have heard or read surprisingly are still super relevant to whats still happening in america today. I personally believe that its incredibly sad that a couple decade old poem about inequality in america still can hold so much weight today, granted not all of it is relevant but there are defiantly parts that while listening to it made me think of our current political landscape. i think it is important that my generation acknowledges that things haven't changed enough yet and its going to be our job to undo/right these wrongs
Like every other part of our country, women were affected by the horrors of different major wars the U.S has participated in. Despite not being on the battlefield the darkness of war is still either seen or known.
When we began our attack on Iraq after the Gulf War , American-Jamaican poet June Jordan published a book of poems including a very politically fueled poem called The Bombing Of Baghdad. This poem starts with a repetition of bombing different things over and over, which shows us as readers where the poet stands on the situation. Many parts of the poem are pretty standard disgust in the way that our country is treating the millions of people in Iraq, However where the poem catches my attention and where i began to understand her feelings was when June started to compare the situation to the likes of Crazy Horse with Custer, and the Holocaust. These strong descriptions of wrong-doings really hammered in the wrong we were causing in this other country. Through her writing i believe it is very clear that this poet is forever changed by the events occurring in her lifetime and it shows in this specific poem the climax of that feeling. Societal expectations placed on women mostly stem from an older, more sexist way of thinking. The idea behind this forced inequality is to place white men on a pedestal where they are seen as the ”most superior human”. Although this way of thinking was mainly present in our past we do see it occur in our lives today.
This weeks short story ;The Yellow Wallpaper by Charolotte Perkins Gilman, focuses on a woman and the treatment her husband John gives her (as a doctor). Very early off we are told two different degrees of sickness our main character is in, her husband, who is an esteemed doctor tells her "there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression,—a slight hysterical tendency,—what is one to do?" (page 131) and our main characters self diagnosis "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad."(page 132). In its core this kinda long short story is about oppression and what it does to a person, the more John traps his wife away with "treatment for her condition" through isolation the worse her condition gets, ending in a near psychotic break as she obsesses over yellow wallpaper. Personally i didn't feel any personal relevance with this story, the longer i read the more of a chore it felt to get through, although it had an interesting way of addressing the inequality of a relationship. |
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