Blockbusting and Redlining

The raisin in the sun displays the effects of institutional racism on African Americans during the 50's and 60's."Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could"(act 2) In that quote mama describes how hard it was for blacks trying to buy a home and pay for it. Whites created the inner city ghettos we see today, due to the practices they enacted in the past. Two prominent strategies they used were redlining and blockbusting.  redlining is "the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas." While blockbusting is "an illegal practice in which licensees or others encourage homeowners to sell because of an influx or expected influx of minorities into the area."

In many people's opinions these practices created the ghettos of America today. Statistics also show a stark contrast between the living conditions of black neighborhoods in comparison to white neighborhoods.  The scariest fact is that redlining still occurs today. A study done in 2002 showed that "small businesses in black neighborhoods received fewer loans, even after accounting for business density, business size, industrial mix, neighborhood income, and the credit quality of local businesses"(Immergluck) The grocery store video also proves this point even more. Racism still exists and racism still affects the living quality for blacks. Just look at flint, it’s a perfect example of environmental racism. The irony in all of this is that whites created the ghetto but expect blacks to fix it immediately? 

Money and Being Morally Corrupt

In the Diamond as big as the Ritz we could all see that the washingtons were morally corrupt and it was discussed in much detail in class. I couldn't help thinking about a question about the washingtons though. Are the washingtons morally corrupt because of their wealth or are they wealthy because they are morally corrupt? It's a perplexing question, but in this blog post I'm going to compare both views and I want you to decide in the comments.

So let's look at wealthy people today, most of the moderately wealthy people go to school and get a 4 year degree and make good money. That's the traditional route. Other ways of making lots of money is through sports and owning small businesses. These are all honest professions and don't necessarily need corruption to get to the top. On the flip side though there are people who have used corruption to get to the top and make loads of money. Bernie Madoff and Jordan Belfort are two examples of that.

Well what exactly happens when you are at the top and you are making lots of money? Well, according to scientists the answer is corruption. There have been numerous times where the public have seen this unfold. Tiger woods and Warren Buffet are two examples. They both made their money honestly and reached the top but with all this money at their disposal they both became corrupt. Tiger Woods cheating on his wife, while Buffet has partnered with goldman sachs who is another company known for their corrupt and dishonest ways. He has been evading taxes as well.

So in terms of The Diamond As Big As The Ritz I believe the family was corrupt because of money.  They were born into it, but what's your opinion? Do you think more money just exposes the moral corruptness we have anyway? Or does money create the corruption?

My Favorite Gatsby Passage

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Chapter 1)

         This passage is my favorite in the book. It's quite powerful and probably applies to the majority of us in Troy. It definitely applies to me. At times I complain about something quite trivial and then I sit back and realize that my problems arent really problems at all. I may be irritated with a person and may dislike them but everyone has a background that we don't know about. Someone may cut me off because they are in a hurry to the hospital. Someone may be arrogant to hide the fact that they are extremely insecure about themselves. Someone may be rude because their day is just awful. The point is that everyone is going through something we don't know about. Some bigger than others, but nonetheless, Fitzgerald's aphorism is great. 

        

          Criticizing others is something we all do and this passage really reminded me of thoughts that I always have. I understand that I do have advantages over many people. I go to the best high school in michigan, I live in the safest city in michigan, and I have basic necessities, which is something much of the world does not have. Yet, at times I find myself always castigating others. I wouldn't say I'm mean I'm just very analytical and it can come off as pretty selfish. 

          This book offers a lot of lessons and this is just one of the few that I took away from it. my mom always tells me to be grateful and up until this point I don't feel that I have been grateful enough. However who do I be grateful to? How can I possibly show how much my mom means to me? This is something that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

Extra Credit Post

Ahh it's black friday. I didn't go shopping today though...I went yesterday at 6 pm.  Every year it seems that black friday starts earlier and earlier and of course me and my family bought into the hype. It was insane at great lakes crossing yesterday, I waited an hour and a half just to buy two t-shirts. As I was standing in line trying not to go crazy, it occurred to me that there are many parallels between the consumerism of the roaring twenties and the consumerism around the holidays in our society today.

After waiting very long in line for two shirts I realized that I had wasted my night. What happiness would buying this give me? It's literally 10 dollars off of a shirt. The great gatsby does an excellent job of showing how pointless materialism really is.


Fitzgerald was disillusioned with how america had turned into a materialistic driven country so he wrote gatsby. If fitzgerald was alive now I'm absolutely positive he would be even more disgusted than he was back then. The amount of advertising on our buildings, televisions, radios. and games is ridiculous.  This all ties back to my experience yesterday.We all know how destructive chasing money and materials is, and how money doesn't equal happiness, but we continue to buy into black friday. Why do we all go crazy on black friday? Why does buying clothes and appliances on minimal sales make us so happy? Fitzgerald and all of us had this same question. I'm afraid that we are all aware of our stupidity but we will never break the shackles of consumerism. With that being said, I'll see all of you next year for the sales! :)

Lost Generation

I'm quite happy actually. I'm happy because I got to do some more research on one of my favorite eras from american history: the 1920's. I aced this unit in APUSH so I was excited to do research on it.

Anyways, modernism in the 1920's is really interesting to me. It was a time of industrialization, a time of change, a time of new ideas and values. Long gone were the days of rural lifestyle, the place to be was the city. Screw community and family living, independence was the goal.Forget the farms, the stock market was where the real money was at. Modernism was embraced by many but modernism was also rejected and frowned upon by many.

One such group that were disillusioned with all the changes were the writers of the lost generation. Ernest hemingway made the bold statement "You are all a lost generation." Many other writers of the time believed in this such as F Scott Fitzgerald. The disillusionment of all these writers were because of "the lack of purpose or drive resulting from the horrific disillusionment felt by those who grew up and lived through the war, and were then in their twenties and thirties. Having seen pointless death on such a huge scale, many lost faith in traditional values like courage, patriotism, and masculinity." (O'Connor, university of oxford)

The lost generation is important. Some of the most influential and praised books were a product of the writers of the lost generation. The Great Gatsby and a Farewell to Arms are both essential pieces of american literature. I'm excited to read the Great Gatsby.

Loving you is complicated

Butterflies are beautiful, and there are no attempts from anyone to make them more beautiful. People are also beautiful like butterflies , yet white America continues to attempt to "Pimp" these butterflies. Why? The parallels between Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly are uncanny. Both projects tackle the themes of white america bearing black america down, racism, self hatred/love, beauty, and socioeconomic standing. There are many songs from this album that could be analysed within the context of The Bluest Eye, but I want to focus on "u" which arguably is the most difficult song to listen to sonically, but arguably the most personal and deep song to listen to lyrically. The song is all about depression, more specifically self-depression and self hatred, which is something Pecola deals with in Morrison's book. 

You preached in front of 100,000 but never reached her
I fuckin' tell you, you fuckin' failure—you ain't no leader!
I never liked you, forever despise you—I don't need you!
The world don't need you, don't let them deceive you

Here, Kendrick acknowledges being hailed as a great by hip hop legends, yet not feeling as if he's accomplished anything. He says he never reached "her" which is women in general and more specifically his sister. He realizes he can have critical success but without making a difference in people's lives he feels useless. This is quite similar to how Toni feels in the foreword, she is unsatisfied because readers felt “touched but not moved”. Morrison also says that self loathing is worse than being disliked because it's internalized and it can lead to self destruction. 

Self destruction. Which is exactly what Kendrick is going through in the song. He's drunk, he's crying. He's wailing. We see a man literally hate himself so much that it leads to near destruction. He second guesses his accomplishments and second guesses living. 

You ain’t no brother, you ain’t no disciple, you ain’t no friend
A friend never leave Compton for profit or leave his best friend

This song is a stark contrast to "i" which is an upbeat song about positivity and self love. 

(I love myself)
Illuminated by the hand of God, boy don't seem shy
(I love myself)
One day at a time, uhh

Kendrick himself says "there can be no 'i' without 'u'." Life will always be hard, but self hatred can be avoided. Self love can be achieved, you must battle the struggle of loving yourself in the face of strife. 

But then again...Loving you is complicated

Ugliness and Beautiness

OK, quick question. Who the hell decides what makes a person beautiful and what makes a person ugly. Seriously though. Also, who the hell decides that we all have to agree to this standard of beauty. You know when I read the question "Is race a social construct?" I scoffed and didn't think much of it. But after much research i concluded that race is indeed a social construct. Now if someone were to ask me "Is beauty a social construct?" I wouldnt research it at all because the answer is obviously yes. The concept of beauty and reaching the perceived standard of it has ruined many lives and made many people feel terrible about themselves. We are constantly being bombarded with how we should look and what we should wear by society. Billboards, movies, television, and advertisements all perpetuate the backwards standards about beauty that we all have to live with.
The Bluest Eye delves into the emotional effects that these beauty standards can have on people. "Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes" (page 46) Pecola wishes and wishes for blue eyes and she hates herself because she doesn't have them. This is a terrible thought and a terrible feeling. Imagine hating yourself because of how you look. Something you have no control over. There are times when everybody thinks this. Sometimes I wish I was taller but at the end of the day I can't control that and I'm happy. For other people though, they don't realize that and they start to hate themselves over what they can't control. To solve this issue I think that there needs to be more emphasis on self love instead of the same old standards everyone strives for.

Puzzle Paragraph 2

While others say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder; others disagree with that sentiment and strive for what they believe is society's standards for beauty. Disliking yourself because of the way you look is worse than being disliked by others for the way you look. It's worse because you are accepting this and internalizing it. You are the one believing that you are ugly and you start to loathe yourself. Loathing yourself is arguably worse than gambling all of your money in a casino in the author's opinion. Loathing yourself and being lonely can make you feel like the Lone Ranger. Toni Morrison describes Pecola in the foreword as an important character who was meant to have people look into themselves however she tries to show Pecolas suffering without making the other characters villainous. In this passage Morrison examines her friend wanting blue eyes even though she is black, she tries not to make it seem like she's profiling but she does not think her friend needs blue eyes because it's not right.  She believes she needs to embrace her race and all the beauties of being black. This book is not a memoir but it feels like an expression of feelings and thoughts of the author. There may be truth in this book and there may not be truth, but the author will create verisimilitude about life through writing about the main characters battle with herself and with society. This book will have passion and hopefully, it will evoke a fire from the readers.               

The Idiotic Theory of Scientific Racism

Scientific racism is "the use of  scientific techniques and hypotheses to support or justify the belief in racism, racial inferiority, racialism, or racial superiority" Thankfully this theory has been denounced by the scientific community since the 1950's, however at one point in history, this was widely believed and used to enslave, kill, and mistreat other races. One particular example of this theory being used for evil is the holocaust and nazi movement. The Nazi's used this theory to justify their awful treatment of jews in concentration camps as well as the whole holocaust in general. They believed that the aryan race was the only race fit enough to be worthy of life. They also classified many other types of people into the "unfit category", which led to the extermination jews, homosexuals, and mentally disabled. 

The one thing that MAUS does exceptionally well is portraying what the nazis did in such an accurately historical manner. On page 58 of volume 2 they show this theory of "unfit" being applied. They selected who was fit enough to live and who was unfit to die. 

The thing about scientific racism that scared me the most was that it was used in the united states as well. I was doing research and I stumbled across what scientific racists believed in regards to blacks. Scientific racists "described black men as uniquely fitted for bondage, because of their "primitive psychological organization".In 1851, in antebellum Louisiana, the physician Samuel A. Cartwright (1793–1863), considered slave escape attempts as "drapetomania", a treatable mental illness, that 'with proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented'."(Samuel Sillen "racism and psychiatry, 1972)

This theory is probably the worst theory ever created, it's even worse that it was applied as vehemently as it was in the U.S and nazi germany. This has caused so many unnecessary deaths in our world. At the end of the day, there is only ONE race; the human race. 

MAUS

I'm not gonna lie. When Ms. Valentio handed me MAUS and told me to read the first chapter I looked at the cover and I was really confused. Why is there a swastika? Why does hitler look like a cat? And why is there mice hugging each other? Before even opening the book I decided to analyze the cover and i realized what it was trying to portray. It was trying to say that during the holocaust, jews were mice to the german, who were cats. It made total sense to me and I was excited to read it, but then I actually opened the book and it was in comic form. The whole thing. I've never actually read a comic before so I was excited to do so. This whole book has been very enjoyable and very effective for me and  actually think that this form may be more effective than a book in portraying the pain and emotions in history. The page that I want to show will exemplify this.

Page 108/109


This panel is so incredible to me because it is able to show so many things that just words alone could not do. We see that vladek is looking incredibly skinny which is because of not being fed at the concentration camp. This is subtle but can only be shown through pictures. I think that an author just describing to us that vladek was skinny wouldn't do the actuality of it much justice, but since there is a picture to show us it does. His emotion are portrayed in this panel as well. We see the anger and the sadness, and the nervousness by just looking into his eyes. Without the words the reader could still interpret what he is feeling just by the drawing alone.

I'm not necessarily saying that comics are better than books, but i do feel that comics are very important and can show the reader many things that just words on a paper could not.
Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts?

Misconceptions

When I first read the calender and saw that we were reading feminist literature, I groaned and rolled my eyes expecting to read the typical man bashing, bra burning  type of work but boy was I wrong. The first mistake I made this week was expecting to read that type of work, but the real underlying issue is that I assumed all feminists were radical, when in reality only a small minority of women are in this category of "bra burning". Feminism is so much more than what I thought it was at first. Thanks to the Hooks piece, the Kingston piece, discussions with Mrs. Valentino, and discussion with the substitute I was able to realize that feminism is demonized thanks to the outspoken minority and that feminism's goals are realistic and should be attainable. As Bell Hooks said,"Future feminist movement will be sustained only if the needs of the masses of women are addressed." So this is a call to action and one that I believe should be worked towards. 

The main thing that I really took away from this week aside from my new stance on feminism is that misconceptions are evil. As I said before, my views on feminism were skewed thanks to the minority being the loudest. I think this can apply to lots of social issues we have in this country today. Just because a small militant group (ISIS) is killing people doesn't mean that all muslims are terrorists, but because ISIS gets the most attention and the most coverage, people are swayed to believe in this. This is exactly what happened to me with feminism, I heard the radical minority because they were the loudest, but I ignored the reasonable majority because they were quiet. 

Civil Disobedience: A Necessity

This week in class we analyzed "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. The first time I read this piece I was skeptical. I agreed with a lot of things he was saying, such as:"That government is best which governs least", but I also disagreed with him when he encouraged people to openly break the law. Eventually the more and more I analyzed and thought about the matter the more and more I realized he was right. Think about all the change that would not have happened if people didn't participate in civil disobedience. What if Rosa Parks stood up and gave up her seat on the bus? What if the Boston Tea Party wasn't formed and didn't throw tea over the harbor to protest British rule and taxes? What if Susan B. Anthony didn't illegally vote in the house of representatives to protest female disenfranchisement? The point is clear, we would not be as free of a country that we are today without people standing up to unjust laws and breaking them.
Civil disobedience is needed and it is justifiable. Civil Disobedience is needed to publicize an issue. For instance, let's take Colin Kaepernick's actions and the black lives matter movement into account. Without Colin taking a knee and the black lives matter movement forming, there wouldn't be nearly as much talk about police brutality in the country. Thanks to these movements there are measures being taken to help prevent more cases like Freddie Gray from never happening again. There are now cameras that some police forces require their officers to to wear at all times, and there is more dash cameras on police cars. Though, the issue is far from over, without civil disobedience there wouldn't have been any progress made. So all in all, as Thoreau would say; "BREAK THE LAW!"

The Albanian Stereotype?!

"My father was the perfect hippie, since all the hippies were trying to be Indian." (Alexie) 

Regardless of your race and ethnicity, everyone has a stereotype attached to them. For African Americans its that they are thugs and like eating fried chicken. For Asians, its that they are good at math and piano. For Indians, its that they only eat curry and are also good at math. Even white people have these stereotypes. Their stereotype is that they only drive pickup trucks and chew tobacco. I could go on and on, but that's not the point. We all know stereotypes exist and we all know that for the most part, they are not true. In class we examined how much influence stereotypes have on peoples perspectives on that particular race, sex, or ethnicity. Sherman Alexie grappled with stereotypes in the Jimi Hendrix piece as well as his film: Smoke Signals. In both of these he examines how peoples views on Native Americans are shaped by stereotypes and that in turn Native Americans are expected to act like those stereotypes suggest. 

On this blog post I really wanted to talk about my own personal experience with stereotypes, these stereotypes may be ones that you may not have heard of before. As an Albanian, I'm very proud of my culture and where I come from but just like every other ethnicity, there are stereotypes attached to me. When people find out what I am, the most usual response I get is "Ohhh, really?! I could tell by your bushy eyebrows! I love Albanians.! Does your dad own a coney island?" For the most part I'm not really offended by this and most Albanians that I know arent either but it does annoy me and many other Albanian Americans. I really don't understand where people got the stereotype of all Albanians owning coney islands. Out of all the Albanians I know, only two of them own one. This stereotype doesn't offend me because it doesn't cause people to have prejudice and look down upon me because of it. Some stereotypes that are aimed towards blacks are pretty crude and I completely understand why blacks can be offended by them. All in all, my experiences with stereotypes are tame compared to other ethnicity stereotypes . I learned a lesson this week though, although the stereotypes don't affect or offend some, doesn't mean its okay to spew this "knowledge" and make jokes about ethnicities because chances are, they don't fit into that stereotype and it will give the uninformed a skewed viewpoint. 

Truth!

"Truth". The word itself may seem easy to define, but in all actuality it may be the hardest word to define. Everyone can claim what they believe to be true but there will always be another person who will ask: "How do you know its true?" Truth always seems to be in question in all of our lives and in our society today, whether its the medias distortion of the truth or your friend telling you a little white lie, we never are really sure what to believe. Perhaps there's no such thing as an absolute truth but rather only perspectives and beliefs. "But David wait! What do you mean there is no such thing as an absolute truth? We know we are here don't we? We all die right? That's the truth!": an angry reader may say to me. But in all honesty how do we know this? How do we know we really are her, how do we know what will happen to us? The answer to that is that we don't. To me and all my years of living I've come to the realization that an absolute truth doesn't exist. Everyone has a different perspective and we make our own truths. We define what we believe is true and what we believe is fake. Some of us hate conspiracy theories and dismiss them as "fake" while some us bask in conspiracy theories and believe it to be true.I don't mean to come off controversial or anything but come on, think about it. How do we actually know something is true? I never really put this much thought into what the truth is, but after our discussions on TTTC everyone brought up really good points that made me think a lot. Some would say we know there are truths while others would say some peoples truths are not true for others. I also saw the validity of truth being questioned in the actual book. O'Brien constantly switches up the truth and we don't know what to believe. "For example, we've all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast and saves his three buddies. Is it true? The answer matters."(O'Brien, How to tell a true war story) He constantly blurs the line between truth and fiction in the story which leaves the reader unsatisfied with he's telling them. He frustrated me when he said one thing was not true after he spent a  whole chapter telling us it was true. Maybe hat was the effect he was going for. Maybe he wanted us to be frustrated with finding  the truth in the book just like we are with finding the truth in real life.