Response to Denii's Blog

 The purpose of my response is to clarify and to analyze Denni's point of view on mixed races. Denii raises a valuable point that is debatable in today's society. In her blog Mixed Race, she states that the only way slavery (both mental and non mental) could end is through a balanced education of culture and through open mindedness. It is a valid claim because she herself has been exposed to multiple cultures. Denii states that "one of my teachers in middle school was black and Korean, one of my sister-in-laws in married to a Korean man and have a beautiful Korean-Dominican daughter, I also met plenty of people mixed with black and Hispanic blood or Asian and Hispanic blood or Asian and American blood" (Rincon). Denii knows how it feels to be exposed to multiple races and she sees how prejudice can end if we just come to accept all the different cultures around the world without stereotypes or without judgement. You can still be African-American, Korean, Korean, Puerto Rican and you can still be human because your culture is still valuable to the world, and the white culture is not the only culture that counts. All cultures are valuable, and we just need to be exposed to them in order to understand that. I agree with Denii because so many people in today's world are ignorant of other cultures and they sometimes even feel threatened by the presence of another culture. Some people get nervous around African-American males because they think they might get robbed or beat up, but they are not going to and they could be going to school and just going to their jobs to support their family. Not all people are the same and sometimes we even have similarities. Instead of listening to the prejudice instilled into our heads, we just have to give them a chance and see what they're about. Multiculturalism and the acceptance of different cultures is the way to achieve equality, and Denii hit the nail on the head by stating that in her claim. All in all, she makes a valid point and a point that we must all consider in our lifetimes if we want to see the end of slavery, whether it be mental or non-mental.

 I think you (Denii) can use this claim on your blog because you have experience and you know what it feels like to be exposed to different cultures. It would go well with the essay and you would be able to get concrete evidence through life experience.

Works Cited:

Rincon, Denni, Mixed Races, "http://deniiraceandcultureblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/mixed-races.html"

Blog Two

I found today's class interesting because we discussed many points about the reading Slave and Citizen.   I was intrigued by the upward mobility society had for African-American slaves back then and how it would contribute to the end of racism. Tannenbaum believed that racism would only end if the blacks would stop being black and if they were more like their white counterparts, but this is an interesting notion because race, a main factor in racism, would still exist. White would be the only race that would exist, but everyone being white is not the solution to racism. The elimination of race is the real solution. Race has no correlation to how people act or how they will be, so why is there so much emphasis based on it? We all live on the same planet, the pigmentation in our skin differs from region to region, so why does it matter what color we are? These are the questions Tannenbaum should be asking and answering. 

Blog One: If hate is the shoelace, humanity is the sneaker

During the discussions we had in class, nothing gripped me more than when we talked about how the Holocaust and the slave trade are a part of human nature. More specifically, we discussed how any human being can have the inherent drive to cause immense pain, through hate and suffering, to other people for the pleasure of improving their own lives. Humans have the drive to succeed and are narcissistic and they would do anything to make it to the top. This also implies that as long as there are humans, there will be a continuation of hate throughout our existence. Slavery is an example because it has persisted through hundreds of years and it will most likely make a return in the near future due to the large capital and the money it has provided in the past. The use of religion in slavery is relevant because they captured and make indigenous peoples slaves for profit and they justified their guilt for doing wrong by claiming their colonization as missionary work. They cover the hatred they use to make money with religion.

In the class, it was also argued that if someone were given the chance to kill another person for a large amount of money, that someone would not hesitate to murder them. Monetary gain proved to be more valuable than the human lives of others.

It is just so fascinating to see how the human ego plays a part in slavery and in all of the major fatal events of the world, including the Holocaust. Anyone can become hateful as long as you offer him or her money to carry out a malicious deed.

Diagnostic

Diagnostic: Double Consciousness

 

W.E.B. Dubois’ claim that the history of the American Negro is tied to his two-ness is a claim I cannot disagree with. In America, the American Negro has always had to look through two lenses: One in which they see themselves consciously and free of judgment, and the other in which they had had to look at themselves through the eyes of the whites, who gave them freedom just to prevent any guilt from overtaking them. There is no doubt that their struggle with their identities is true, but one must see why. In the past century and beyond, The American Negro has had to deal with an internal struggle based on self-identity in a world that demands their torturous service. Instead of being considered as equals and as humans who live in America as others do, the negroes have lived for hundreds of years with one true identity and then another hundred more years being forced to replace it with a lesser identity in order to conform to colonists and in order to avoid extermination. They have had to perish as slaves and they have had to devote their own lives as the property of White America.

Before they were enslaved, Negroes lived in a culture with no race barrier and they lived in peace among themselves only. Nothing was wrong with the culture they lived through and they survived many years without perishing to famine or to colonization. But America felt the need to reduce the Negroes as property and they also tried to erase their identity as cultured Negroes living in Africa. But there is no need to erase such a previous identity because it is not wrong. The American Negroes’ two-ness should not consist of one identity being over the other, but the identities should be equally recognized. Although ridicule and embarrassment comes with being identified as a Negro in America, this is the world that they will have to live in and to endure for many years until their eventual acknowledgement as humans is recognized.  Even with struggling with an Americanized identity, it should not discredit the fact that the Negro still has value, knowledge and a unique culture to offer to the world. The Negro does not lose his value as a human for being a Negro. He is still a human.