Brainstrom

ok umm im not really sure exactly what my final topic is going to be but it may be how in my own life i havent experienced the side of school that isnt diversed but how i witness it everyday. I live near a school that has been broken up into 5 different schools. The reading rates are extremely low and it has everything to do with the lack of money.

essay

In my essay I planning to write about my own personal experience in school, the progress that I believe has been made in the last 5o years and the improvements that i feel need to be made. I also want to write about how even though there isn't legal segregration, in NY you can see the difference in schools and the education which people recieve. There are some sudents that recieve a much better education then other just because of where they live, there are kids who are confined to a certain school. As a student in public school i know that there is a lot more then can be done. In the essay i also want to mention how sometimes kids don't realize what is wrong in the education which they are recieving, because even though they might be doing well in the situation that they are in there is more that they are capable of doing. In Uncle Tom's cabin and The sky is Gray we see how our society and the people around us affect us, I belive that my environment and the people who I have met have had an influnce on me.

Lessons mother teach their children through hardcore diciplines

" Then I catch her kind of looking where i'm at. i smile at her a little bit. But think she'll smile back?"(pg. 91) - "The sky is Gray"

When I read this quote I compared my parental relation with his in a strange way. In this quote his mother reaction to his gesture of love and sympaty was very cold and sometimes my mom is very cold with me. Mothers love their kids but they have a diferent way of expressing that love. As I grew up surrounded by my grandmother who spoiled me alot and my mom who was very young and with poor experience in the filed of motherhood. With my grandmother I experience the sweet part of life and how to be caring and sensitive. However, as James mother my mother also at some random moment in life had a radical change in her life. Transitions are part of life and my mother and my father separated in a moment my mom was not pepare o take responsibility for me and herself. As James father was taking away to go and serve for the army his mother had to step out and be the man and the mother. My mother did too. As she was rasing me she also was growing and it was mutal fight for survival. She was not the loving mother I would have liked to have. Nevertheless, she was the young mother who without any experience in life was looking forward to enhance me with the best education as posible. When I read how James tryed to be a man and not complain and understand his mother I realized in a strange way I have done that myself. I did all I could to be the perfect daughter because that would be a problem less for my mother. My mom was very straight and always made me get rid of my fears and at that moment in time I could not understand why she was doing that but now I see it was to prepare me to survive in a world of darkness and fight for my goals. She made do my own things but now I know it was so I could be independent. As I was reading this I was atonished to discover my mother has just being preparing me so when is time for me to go out to the world.

Essay Brainstorm

To elaborate on my previous statement, I think can relate to the topic by comparing how life for colored youth has drastically changed from then to now. Education has changed today but yet some aspects still remain the same. White education today has a higher quality than that of minority schools. I can compare my experience to that of other kids and their high school experiences.

Essay brainstorm

i can totally relate to this topic by comparing and contrasting life.

EZ's Storm in the Brain

I would like to write an essay that could put the characters in a hypothetical world. And compare or contrast the different actions Richard would take. Instead of listening to what the white people said he should do, he would do what he thought was the right and fair thing. This would also show that Richard would not become spoiled and steal and lie. Instead we would see the honest and kind person he could have becoe if he was treated like a human being and not an animal.

wannabe essay topic

i would feel comfertable writting about the strategy used in the days of jim crow and displaying the difference between the survival tactics and the steps taken toward change. i could use the mind set of teens and students today and our environment and how that effects us in comparison to the surroundings of richard and the boy who suggested that the grass was green.

Prompt for tonight's postings

Hey guys,
Hope that you had a good first day at Vassar! I was quite impressed by our discussions, and I look forward to more as the week goes on. For tonight, you should read pgs 61-96 of the Civil Rights Reader. As I said earlier, you all will be writing a short (2 pgs.) essay connecting the Gaines, Wright, and Civil Rights Reader pieces to your personal experiences. Each of the readings addresses the question, "how do children learn about race?" We would like you to address that question for the Jim Crow era of Gaines, Wright, and other children mentioned in the readings on Brown, and for you in the late 20th/early 21st century. Show how you identify (or not) with the characters from the readings, and in what ways you feel racial education has changed for children now, over 50 years after the Brown decision. You may also integrate the recent Supreme Court decision in your essay, if you want.

Tonight's posting should be a brief brainstorm of your ideas for the essay. You don't have to write much, but I think that thinking "out loud" on the blog will help you formulate ideas and relate concepts you want to address in the essay. Please make your posting before writing lab tomorrow. We will go over them tomorrow.

Thanks guys! Great work today:)

Reflection on Today's Writing Lab

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to review what we did today in Writing Lab. We were exploring the idea of writing as a conversation--with texts (or whatever you're writing about), with others, and perhaps most importantly, with yourself. In getting your ideas out on paper, you are externalizing the internal conversation you had with the text when you were reading, and you begin to hear your own responses more clearly as you put them into words. Later, when others join the conversation (either in a class discussion, or when you engage with others' ideas in a paper), you respond to their comments and your thinking evolves.

The exercise we did on the Blog was in three parts. First, you chose a quotation that provoked a powerful response in you; you posted that quotation, along with a brief comment explaining why you chose it, and what it meant to you. In the second phase, you left that conversation temporarily to read what others had posted about their quotations, and you responded with a comment of your own. In the third phase, you went back to your original posting and reflected on it by explaining how your ideas developed in response to one or more of the comments.

The 3-part process in this exercise is a model of the 3-part process that you use whenever your are writing an essay in college. First comes "brainstorming"--finding a topic you want to explore (many of you used them as the titles of your first posts), finding texts that relate to that topic, exploring your first thoughts, but without necessarily knowing where you want to go with them. Then comes "drafting"--your first attempt at formulating a statement, developing an argument. The drafting process often involves what you were doing in the second phase of the exercise, too, that is, putting your ideas into a larger conversation (with other texts, and/or other writers). Finally comes "revision"--the moment when you go back to what you wrote at first, with a clearer understanding of what you really want to say, and rewrite with an imaginary reader in mind--a reader you want to engage, excite, convince.

My hope is that thinking of writing as process and as conversation will help free you from the fear that sometimes sets in when you face a writing assignment, such as a paper--the fear that whatever comes out of you onto the screen has to be "it," the full-fledged argument, the final word, and that some invisible Teacher-Reader is hiding inside your head, overhearing everything, poised to jump in and correct you. The more you get used to approaching writing as your own process, the more you'll be able to shut out those negative voices, and the better you'll be able to hear your own.

I'd be really grateful to get YOUR feedback on this writing lab: was the approach new to you in any way? what did you like best about it? what might have worked better for you? do you have any concerns or questions about writing that you'd like us to work on this week? You can post your comments on the Blog, or if you'd prefer to write just to me, my email address is dunn@vassar.edu.

Thanks, Leslie

Response to Yudany

After reading Yudany's post, I realized that in the several times I've read the Gaines' piece, I never once thought about the boy's upbringing, who is parents were, and how they feel about their son's choice to have faith in his mind over his heart and over God. Since this boy seems to be well-educated, I wonder about his socioeconomic background, and whether or not his parents are also well-educated. All of these things contribute to a particular kind of freedom a person feels that they possess... perhaps his parents were more open with him, allowed him or encouraged him to rely more on his mind/logic than matters of the spirit. Or maybe he was a complete rebel. It's difficult to tell, but I do think that it is very important to think about the influences of each individual's background on his/her ways of thinking. Background is by no means the determining factor in how one thinks, but sometimes its influence can be profound.

reaction

as one person said that really made me think is that we should greatful that today we have more freedom compared to back then because there were certain rule they had to obey. Today we can go outside, laugh, and hang out with other colored people including white because certain white people were treated just like black because they were for black rights.

REFLECTION ON: where is the pain being felt?

i agree with the comments that the main problem that richard is having is understanding that his actions will always put him in a position where he will have to be punished one way or another and he must be able to see the REAL war and that it goes much further and is much deeper than simply throwing cyinders at white kids.

What came to mind after reading the comments

I have to say the power of the mind is rich n powerful. " Think with the head not the heart or the other way around." Yes people do forget to about the mind and emphize alot in the heart as well as untained said there has to be a lil of happiness. In deed, there have got to be a balance. But I insist that we should be more aware of the power of our mind. Is the mind the one that have feelings b/c is with it that one think about those emotions. Is our brain the one that control the hormones that cause different feeling not the heart. Is the mind that knows who is fear and anger as well as sadness and happiness. Heart is just an organ wich with imagination and fiction has become a personification given life by humans .

Reflection

Even though I do see the importance of taking action in order to see change, I also see how difficult it can sometimes to take action when there are things that hold you back and when you grew up with a mind set. I agree with Marquita about taking action and not living in fear, however people can easily become accustomed to living that way. It can take a lot to change a persons' entire perspective on life. Not everyone is born to take action and be a leader, however if a person is strong and finds a way to do so then they can change the world and make an impact on the lives other.

this is what i thinki

i agree with sami on my quote but it goes exactly with what im saying. u want the bread because u have thought about how satisfied u are with it. u have the choice to question others who are not satisfied with what they have. that is my perspective. if u dont get the opportunity to even think about how u want bread and others dont... then u are not really living the correct way. we should always question things.. ask y it doesnt change or ask y it should change... but we should always question things

Forced Adulthood- Reflection

What sami said at the end of her comment that the mothers coldness could be a metaphor for the coldness of the Jim Crow laws stuck to me. I guess in a way the mother was preparing him for the future but i think it coulod have been handled differently...theres always a way to get a message across without hurting or making others feel inferior...

Uncle Tom's Children. EZ

After reading the postings I think grass not growing on the yard was more of a symbol of the seperation of class differences between the white neighborhood and the black eighborhood. It probably was't about Richard's lazyness or unkindness. I changed my thought after reading what danielle and aurin had said. And really agreed with them.

Quote Reflection

I recieved some pretty good feedback on my post. John and Ez seemed to agree that Wright was definetly treated injustly. It made me think more into the situation and now I realized that Wright was mistreated not only by whites, but also by his own black peers in the sense that they all tried to shut him down. Whites shut him down out of anger, power, and ignorance. Blacks shut him down out of fear, and their personal need to conform to society. Everywhere he went, Wright faced harsh rejection and only learned of his blunders through harsh reality and brutal punishment.

Never loose your dignity no matter what

I'm going to stick to what initially said in my posting that the mother taught the child a poweful lesson while being at the store. I agree with cezar wen he says that its the right way to race a child during that time period but even now a days. Some people made have tought that the mother was rude to the lady when she was just trying to help them out but truly she was just standing up for herself and showing people that even though they are poor they can stand up for themselves even when being less fortunate than evryone else.

not believing what you're supposed to.....pt.2

I still fell the same about my post. the comments that people left on my post completely agree with what i was thinking when i was writing my explanation. I think that it is always good to be a leader and express how you might think different from other people. Like Aurin said those are the people that now in the present start their own non-prpofit organisations and make a change because they want to, and because they want to follow what they believe

REFLECTION ON THE LITTLE MAN

although the boy is trying hard to make his mother happy and wants to better his situation, i understand john's point in realizing that the boy alone cannot change th conditions around him. this story was more about difference and oppertunity and because the boy was so willing to change things and make his mother feel better, he will grow up to be one of the brave men who change what they CAN AND HAVE THE ABILTIY to change, hoping that the little changes will lead to bigger and better ones for society.

A LITTLE MAN

"I wonder what Mama's thinkiing. I hope she ain't mad at me. When summer com i'm go'n pick plenty cotton and get her a coat. I'm go'n get her a red one." (THE SKY IS GRAY)

-It is very wise and mature for a boy at age eight to think about his mother as often as this boy does. He is ablt to at a young age take her feelings into consideration and find ways to make his mother happy, knowing that she is working hard to support him. He wants to try and help support her too which is both admirable and surprising.

Where is the pain being felt?

"It was alright to throw cinders. The greates harm a cinder could do was leave a bruise. But broken bottles were dangerous; they left you cut, bleeding, and helpess." (The ethics of living jim crow)

-Was it truly alright to throw cinders? What makes it ok for one child to hurt another, even if it is only a bruise. It is not ok to bruise other children as a form of playing. However, to Richard throwing cinders was ok because HE was the one throwing them and the bottles were dangerous because HE was left "cut, bleeding, and helpless." In actuality none of the children should have been playing wasr, but little Richard was beat not really for fighting with the other kids, but for fighting with the white children in the neighborhood. He needed to be taght that in the time of Jim Crow it was not ok even at a young age to try to fight the whites, it was dangerous hazrdous and forbidden.

Uncle Tom's Children. EZ

"Nothing green ever grew in that yard."

Not believing what you're supposed to

"you believe in god because a man told you to believe in god," the boy says. "a white man told you to believe in god. and why? to keep you ignorant so e can keep his feet on your neck."

i chose this quote because it struck me that the boy actually stepped out of the box and expressed his ideas this way. He spoke about how african americans believed in god because a white man told them to. It also struck me how he used the metaphor of how he views the grass as being black. He uses his metaphor to support his idea of religion. People believe that the grass is green because a man told them that, but what if you have a different idea like this man does. Why do afrian ameicans have to go by what the white man say, and folow their laws like if it was written on concrete

Faith in The Sky is Gray

"Let's hope that the ones who come after will have your faith-- if not in God, then in something else, something definitely that they can lean on. I haven't anything. For me, the wind is pink, the grass is black" (Gaines, 102).

The boy in the dentist's waiting room makes this statement after challenging the preacher's unfettered faith in God's ability to restore black civil rights in America. He feels that he doesn't have anything except for his mind to trust, because all other methods of attaining freedom, (i.e., religion, blind trust in justice, etc) have failed to deliver him and his people from the prison of segregation, brutality, and systemic terror. He exists during a time when young men and young women, seeing that their future would be bleak without some kind of societal change, had to make a crucial decision between maintaining the status quo and hoping for deliverance beyond the grave, and risking their lives to question a system they knew was unjust and giving themselves a chance for a better life. At this point, however, there is no foundation on which any of them can stand, because they have not been united... the movement has not yet taken shape. And so, the boy's method of faith in some ways is a reliance on his mind's ability to question his world... and this, he hopes, will lead someday to the creation of a society in which people can realistically trust in other things, like religion and justice to live through difficult times.

"The Sky Is Gray"

"You not a bum", she says. "You a man"

The mom saying this to her son is really powerful because she is showing him a lesson while correcting his actions. She is just clearly telling him that he shouldn't make people feel sorry for him for living under the circumstances he is forced to live in. The mom in that part of the story just wanted the amount of meat she payed for not more. The lady behind the counter just felt like they needed more meat just becuase they looked poor and took this action out of good will. Even though it was a nice gesture of the lady at the store I would have reacted the same way the mother did. I mean just because you are poor and its obvious to others doesn't mean that you should loose your sense of pride and nevertheless your dignity. It's a powerful lesson in my opinion specially during that time.

uncle tom's children by Richard Wright

"the maid, the hall-boy, and the bell-boy were all smiles. They had to be."

when I think of this, I look back to when he talked about how he and a negro maid were walking together and they passed a white night-watchman. This man slapped the maid's behind, and he could not do anything because the white man pulled out his gun and asked him what was he going to do. At the end of the scene, the maid and him continued walking , but he felt uncomfortable that he did nothing to protect her. This comes back "they had to be" because he has to go back to work the next day or when ever and he has to smile or the white folks may beat him. Either way he has no options.

what our problem is as people of color....

"We don't question is exactly our problem..." (Gaines 95).

This is exactly true. Sometimes people of color because we are deprived of some resources we just accept what people tell us. we dont go and look for a deeper meaning or to verify what people say. Its like all we do is believe the "white man" or just the system that is above us at a certain time. For example. we learn many things in school but who is to question a teacher to verify thee facts. we assume its correct because we hope that the teacher is educated and that they were given the job to teach us facts and not made up stories. this goes back to the banking concept of education that i believe emerson talks about. in this method of learning the students are not allowed to question the teacher. they are just to remember the facts. they arent given the opportunity to apply the facts and they are not given any tips on how to think for themselves. its just to preserve the society and keep its status quo "things are the way they have always been" type of idea. i chose this quote because i didnt agree with this form education. everyone should be given the opportunity to question everything that they hear because not everything is true. most is propaganda or just some ideas that people try to impose on you that are not really valid or morally correct.

Quote from "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow"

"When I told the folks at home what happened, they called me a fool. They told me that
I must never again attempt to exceed my boundaries. When you are working for white folk, they said, you got to "stay in your place" if you want to keep working."(pg. xviii)

This quote stood out to me because although Wright felt that he was brutalized and treated unfairly, everyone told him, black and white alike that he's pushing his luck. He should consideer himself lucky to be alive. In those days, being beaten half to death is almost like being able to walk away unscathed.

The Sky Is Gray

"You trying to say these people don't believe in God?"
" I'm sure some of them do. Maybe most of them do. But they don't believe that God is going to touch these white people's hearts and change things tomorrow. Things change through action. By no other way."

The function of the heart- The Sky is Gray

" Me, I don't listen to the heart. The purpose of the heart is to pump blood throughout the body, and nothing else."

The Sky is Gray- Forced Adulthood

" I love my momma and i want to put y arm around her and tell her. But I'm not supposed to do that. She say that's weakness and babycry stuff and she don't want no babycry stuff around her. she don't want you to be scared, either. Cause Ty's scared of ghost and shes always whipping him. I'm scared of the dark too, but i make tend i ain't. I make tend i ain't cause I'm the oldest, and i got to set a good example for the rest. I cant ever be scared and i cant ever cry". pg 84 of The Sky is Gray.