Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington wrote, “The Atlanta Exposition Address” in order to help the slaves decide on whether it was best to stay where they are in the south, or seek better respect and freedom from the north. It seems that Washington was leaning towards the slaves staying in the south, even though the north would sound like a much better place to be in. The south may have a lot more racism, but there are just so many jobs in the south that the slaves would need to stay there for the south to survive. This seems to be the main reason as to why Washington would want the slaves to stay down there. Without them, the entire south economy would fall and the slaves would probably be the ones blamed for this. In the north, the slaves would have more opportunities and rights though the economy there may too fall if they all rush towards it. There are only so many jobs in the north and too many slaves migrating there would destroy what the north already has going for it. Washington is thinking more about he future and he knows that in time the south will become like north. The slaves just need to “offer up their buckets” to the people in the south and in time they will fill the buckets with everything the newly freed slaves would need.

Venture and Equiano

There were many differences and similarities in the stories about the two slaves, Venture Smith and Equiano. The main difference between the two would be the way each of then told their stories. Venture Smith sort of skipped over most of the bad things in his life and just focused on what life was like as a free man. He told stories of how he found his family and had to pay to get them. This was greatly different than the way that Equiano told his story. Equiano used just about every detail he could to show the reader just how horrible it was that a person would ever have to be put through what he got put through. As discussed earlier, a reason for this was probably because of who was telling each story. Equiano’s story was told by himself, which means that everything that he wants to convey he can make sure first hand that it’s added to his piece. Venture Smith on the other hand could not read and write. This means that his story was told by him but transcribed by what was probably a white man. The only reason that this could be a bad thing was that Venture Smith was trying to tell a story of how bad the white men treated him and the other slaves. If a white man if writing this story, chances are that he’s going to skip over the bad things that Venture would talk about and only talk about the parts that didn’t involve the white men. This is exactly how Venture’s story came out because he basically skipped over how horrible the boat ride was and most of the details on his kidnapping but kept in great detail everything that happened post slavery. In Equiano’s story, he talks about how horrible everything was using every detail he can to get the message across. His message was aimed at the white people who did this to him, which is probably why his message was more explicit. The endings of the two stories also differ greatly. In Venture’s story, he sets out and tries to buy his family back out of slavery and also some other slaves along the way. In Equiano’s story, we get the ending of him trying to abolish slavery all together. It seems as though Equiano’s has more value to it only because he just wants everyone to be equal, while Venture Smith is sort of buying into slavery when you think about it. He’s basically paying for people’s freedom, while Equiano is saying that people should just be free and that they shouldn’t have to buy their freedom from people.

Each of these three pieces of writing used forms of writing and ideas that some of the other pieces we’ve read have. One thing that really stuck out for me was the use of repetition in each of the writings. Just like in previous writings, two of these songs used repetition to make sure that the point of the song was showed. The repetition gave the main idea more meaning and made the message stick with the reader. Another thing that one of the songs, We Shall Overcome, did was convey the message of hope and freedom, just like some of the other pieces we’ve read. We read a couple of pieces that talked about how the people believed that some day they will be free and all that they have to do is keep believing that someday that will happen. This is exactly what this song did and its main message was that someday we shall all be free. The song Strange Fruit did a great job of comparing the hanging of black people to fruit on trees. What the author seemed to do was created a hidden meaning that said that the way that black people are being treated is just like how we treat fruit, but in a much worse way. This song compared to a couple of writings we read that used metaphors to show the message they wanted to tell. One last thing that the poem Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round did was telling the message that nothing should keep you down. It was saying that no matter what may get in the way you should always keep marching, which is what most of the pieces we’ve read discussed

John Henry Comparison

I would have to say that there is little that is similar between the pieces Ballards and the other two songs by NAS. Ballards was more of a story with hope in the beginning that John would beat the white man in a race. The beginning gave a somewhat sense of happiness (or at least happier than the NAS songs). In the end however John beats him but still ends up dead. The tragic ending is the only connection I could really make between the two pieces of writing. Nas created songs about what a hard life it is and what surrounds them. There is some sense of hope in the songs because some of them discuss how things are really bad, but they could be a lot worse. Nas also made you feel like the “main character” in the songs was basically on their own. The character didn’t have anyone supporting them or cheering them on through the hardships that he or she faced. Ballards on the other hand made the reader feel as if they weren’t alone and that people were there to support them and do anything. It seems as if NAS is trying to show us how hard life is when you’re living on the streets with bums outside of where you sleep. I felt that Ballards was trying to tell the story of what happened to John, but didn’t try to show us what a hard life he had. The piece did however end on John beating the white man but still dying, sadly due to his own actions.

Shakespeare lines 80 through 115

In the beginning, Marcellus is wondering why guarding the land has become so strict and why cannons and other implements of war are made in foreign places. He also wonders why the shipbuilders are working so hard that they don’t even have Sundays off. Horatio replies to Marcellus saying that the king that they just saw as a ghost was a rival with the king Fortinbras of Norway who challenged him to a battle. The battle was won only because of the courageous hero Hamlet. The lands that Fortinbras used to own now belonged to Hamlet. Fortinbras’ son hired people to fight back and recover the land that his father had lost. Those were the reasons, according to Haratio, as to why the guards were so strictly posted recently. Barnardo then chimes in confirming what Horatio said seemed right and that is also explained why the king was haunting them when he did.

FEED

Feed is a story about a futuristic community that has chips implanted in the backs of their heads, which sends them information. This information can be anything from taking them to a place, to ads, to telling them what they should do and buy. The book’s two main characters are Titus and Violet. Titus had his chip implanted in him when he was born but Violet didn’t have hers implanted until she was 7 years old. Not having it implanted until she was 7 caused her to develop more social skills and let gave her the opportunity to learn in School (Trademark). Since Titus had his implanted when he was young, he doesn’t have as much social skills and can’t think for himself as much as Violet can. Violet did end up dying at the end because of her feed being added at such a late stage in her life however. I personally did not like the story because of the way it was written, but the book did get me to think about how technology affects our community and what life could be like in future years. I started thinking back to what it might’ve been like living a hundreds of years ago. How weird life must’ve been having no phones, Internet, or even gps systems. I’m sure that it must’ve been crazy not being able to call someone when you needed to contact him or her. Even when they had phones it still must’ve been hard without cell phones. The world of technology has come to far to make our lives convenient so maybe having these feeds in our heads will be something good. People in the past may have thought that having telephones would be the weirdest things, but we treat it as the characters treat their feeds. Feeds are a lot more different than telephones though. I would never want to get a feed put in. Thinking that people would be forced to receive information about hotels and their prices is just weird. It’s as if the feed is telling these people how to live. Telephones never force us to have banners and say what we should do. I honestly don’t think that feeds will ever be created but the book did a really good job of making it seem like something that could happen any day. It’s impossible for a company to be given the rights to implant a system that tells people basically how to think. The fact that this device interacts with the human brain is enough I think for the government not to allow this to be used. The device could malfunction like it did in Violet’s case. It’s very doubtful that people would ever consent to this, but who knows maybe in the future it will become a common thing just like cell phones. People used to be suspicious of getting cell phones because of the fear that they would cause cancer but now just about everyone owns a cell phone.

Black In America

I thought that the Black In America documentary really helped me get closer to understanding how the problems of racism in America are affecting people. I never thought that racism was this much of a problem anymore but I guess that it still is. The fact that only 3% of management jobs were given to African Americans really surprised and bothered me. It never really comes to my mind that black skin could be a deal breaker for getting a job. I do understand that the amount of African American graduates is a pretty low number but I didn’t think that it was low enough to cause the amount of African American managers to be as low as 3 %.
Another statistic that really bothered me was the one about the amount of African Americans that will grow up with no father. This statistic doesn’t deal with racism but is still a big problem that needs to be fixed. It’s hard believing that 60% of African American children will grow up with no father. The father that was in the video seemed like he didn’t care about his child at all. I didn’t feel bad for him at all I more felt anger towards him for acting the way he was. He showed no care at all towards his child and you could tell that he didn’t. The way that he responded to the reporter made it seem like he wasn’t even bothering listening to her. It just frustrated me how someone could just abandoned two human beings like that and only go into their lives when they feel like it. It’s hard to even imagine what growing up like that would be like; thinking that your own father left because of your birth.
60% of African American high school dropouts was another fact that disturbed me. I can’t believe that that number could be so high because not all dropouts are going to end up being criminals. The fact that the video brought up about African Americans being suspected of doing crimes does seem to explain part of why that number would be so high. I don’t think that that many cops go through the trouble of planting evidence on African Americans just because they don’t like their skin color. The video did make another point that explains why the number of dropouts is so high. The media is depicting African Americans in a negative way whether it be through music videos or the news. It was surprising seeing that the news would rather do a story on an African American doing one crime rather a Caucasian doing the same exact crime.