Black Boy Activities

Richard's Favorite Movies --

1. Lord of the Rings
Richard relishes the fantastic world of Frodo and company, a sanctuary away from his pressing daily life, strife with hunger, poverty, and isolation.  He feels free in the Shire to explore his dreams.  Frodo's world is tremendously different from the brutal reality of racism, oppression, and poverty for many black boys like Richard in the South.  Furthermore, Frodo ventures on a noble quest to discover himself, a struggle of Richard's everyday.

2. The Amazing Spiderman 2
Richard appreciates Spiderman's personable nature, and understands the gray area that Spiderman exploits as a hero -- breaking the law to save.  Spiderman has the same conflict in making relationships with others in the mainstream as Richard.  Spiderman tries to find a balance so as to not endanger his peers in his treacherous work, and Richard knows that he cannot thrust himself in the social world because he is restricted by guardian strictness and his poverty, despite his desires to do so.

3. The Blind Side
Richard appreciates the silent power of Michael Oher, and empathizes with Oher's struggle in poverty and in finding himself through his passion.  Oher is highly mobile as a youth, and finds success.  Richard understands the way Michael uses silence to convey his beliefs -- Richard does much of the same to resist white prejudice in his numerous jobs.

4. The Thief Lord
Richard revels in the fantasy presented by the Thief Lord, and the mix of pariah and mysticism.  Prosper and Bo in the movie find power on their own, with little nurturing care, like Richard.  The movie represents Richard's rebellious nature, wonder, and curiosity.

5. Slumdog Millionaire
The story of rags to riches through knowledge is inspirational to Richard.  It fuels his questions and dreams.  This movie is miraculous, yet true, and shows how knowledge can elevate one's status in the world.  Richard knows that knowledge is power.

Write That I Poem

Storyteller ~

Write that I am a storyteller

        Playing with fire, igniting a spark

Write that I am a boy

        Under the iron boot of my elders

Write that I discover

        The world is a wonder, and I am breaking out to explore

Write that I read

        To be forever free

Write that I don't believe in God

        Because God is what they have over me, and God is ignorance and conformity

Write that I will not let white people control me

        They cannot oppress me

Write that I am bold

        The scared people cannot bring me back

Write that I will rise

        With words bearing the Southern truth

Instagram Account --

@richardwright2017

Online Dating Profile (Grandma) --
connect.christianmingle.com

username: knittingandjesus1@gmail.com
password: Jesuslovesu2

Abstract Art --

Symbols include zebras gradually losing their identity as the chain gang progresses, and Richard's early distinctly black and white thought processes.  The art also shows the irony and hypocrisy of chain gangs and oppression among black regiments of soldiers serving their country: America.  The book shows the importance of stories in Richard's life, and the fire demonstrates the potential for freedom knowledge brings.  Other ideas are control and restriction, and the harshness of racism and general.  The water shows suffocation.

Link to Passion Project Video and Spoken Word Poetry

My Video

Michael Lee -- Shelters

Reflect-Write-Share: Power

        Sofia and Harpo are coming into such conflict because of Harpo's expectations, and Sofia's determination to be herself.  She is strong-willed and stubborn, which does not go along with the image that Harpo has of the submissive, obedient wife.  While they both love each other, Sofia tries to resist Harpo's expectations.  She is disappointed that Harpo is so weak that he feels he needs to have power over somebody.  The fight is about Harpo's struggle for the power Sofia has over him, which he feels is not the way a husband-wife relationship should operate.  Throughout his life, Harpo has lived under the whim of Mr. _______.  He wants to finally be higher than somebody.  Sofia is far more powerful in this situation.  She is physically strong, and willful: her determination is in pursuit of a just cause.  Harpo, on the other hand, believes he has power in his position as husband, but Sofia renders this power null.

        Our table believes that the most powerful reaction Sofia could have to the mayor slapping her would be to stare at him in the face, and walk away.  This nonviolent courage elevates individuals over their oppressors in the respect that it fosters for themselves.  However, Sofia was too proud to do that, and her reaction to punch the mayor made a great deal of sense in the situation.  It was quite similar to her dismay in Harpo's attempted enforcement of his gender's role -- the mayor scornfully slapping Sofia showed his prejudice and haughtiness as a white man.  Sofia stood up to these traditions in both situations; however, she lost the battle in this scenario, because of white political power and the public nature of the resistance.  She won the battle with Harpo because of its domestic nature.  Institutional power is greater than individual power, and it's not a choice.

Language and Dialect: Everyday Life

        From recording everyday conversation at my soccer tournament in Rockford, language was largely used with little thought or meaning.  It was casual, indirect, sarcastic, superficial, facetious, and unfortunately, often insensitive.  Yet fortunately, these words only describe the banter of immature teenage boys, rather than that of mature adults.  Observing chatter among adults this weekend, there were substantially fewer diversions from Standard American English, and also in chatter between boys and adults.  The conversation I transcribed took place at Olive Garden, and had many micro-conversations, with little polite listening.  Some of the insensitivity included "Bro, your school's a jail cell," "You girls need to brush your stinky teeth," and "You are hobos without shoes on."  These comments were atypical for everyday conversation, but many of the other conversations that I observed had similar derogatory remarks.  Interestingly, in the conversation that I observed, there was also an omission of the verb "to be," like in The Color Purple.  There is also a good deal of hyperbole present, as well as idioms; for example, "Dude.  The pasta fagioli is to die for.  I get it every time."  Sentences, too, were often incomplete.  One person said, "The breadsticks.  Yes."  Overall, the conversation would have received an "F" on proper use of SAE.

Restrepo Movie Responses

2.  I think the director's choice of intermingling individual interviews with long periods of unedited footage was important for the theme or message of the documentary to be carried across.  First, this technique of excluding an outside narrative voice, and instead using interviews and experiences of soldiers as narration helps the viewer be thrust into war in the way the soldiers were.  As viewers, we come in knowing scarcely anything about the Korengal Valley, just as the soldiers are dropped in like gamepieces to a violent situation, and are forced to adapt.  Also, the choice helps tell the story of the platoon's experiences in the Korengal be complete.  The unedited footage shows the true, uncensored experience of war and its impact on the people involved in the immediate.  However, the interviews are critical for reflection upon deeper meaning into these blurred experiences, that is necessary to completely tell theme and story in Restrepo.  The interviews look into how the experience affected each individual in unique ways, illustrating the inevitable impact it has on lives after the war.  The looking back on it, as Vonnegut argues, is part of what makes us human, and part of the story of war that needs to be told.
3.  Restrepo's platoon faced myriad ongoing challenges in the Korengal Valley in achieving the American agenda.  Perhaps the greatest one was fear.  Fear discouraged troops from fighting and intruding into their enemy's territory; they knew the entire valley was characterized by violence.  Yet fear also made it difficult to overcome biases that might have led to more death -- causing brash actions in revenge that would lead to more death.  Another challenge was pain.  The movie's namesake, after all, Restrepo, is the name of a soldier who died fighting.  A couple of other soldiers were injured or killed, and the soldiers had to be mentally tough to persevere in carrying out the American agenda.  Captain Kearney persuades these soldiers to overcome death and sadness by transforming it into fire against the enemy.  A last challenge could be differences.  Throughout the film, soldiers needed to adopt a unified mindset and follow orders so they would not be killed.  This did cause some backlash.  The platoon needed to become a family.  Yet an even greater challenge was that of working with local elders, who shared different mindsets on the issue than the American soldiers.  The Americans had to realize that the fear of the Taliban was great for the village people, and that cooperation with them was going to be difficult because of threats they had received.  Tension also rose when innocent civilians were injured by Americans.
7.  The showing of the soldiers' individual faces at the end of the film was sobering.  The silence conveyed the idea that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy and slaughter -- an idea present in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five -- there is nothing sensible that can be said.  The silence is imposed by fate.  The pictures showed so much more than words, here.  The faces showed, anguish, grief, stoicism, and regret, all conditions of war.  It also pointed again to the importance of the individual, in the face of the mob mentality nature of war.  The viewer could see the pain of every individual, and it had the effect of breeding empathy.  The scene showed the humanness of people involved in war, which is important for the viewer to recognize.

Slaughterhouse-Five Microlabs

Round 1:  "Actually, Billy's outward listlessness was a screen.  The listlessness concealed a mind which was fizzing and flashing thrillingly.  It was preparing letters and lectures about the flying saucers, the negligibility of death, and the true nature of time." (p. 190)

            Context: Billy is recovering from his head wound in the plane crash, and appears listless to the real world...

            Juxtaposition of Billy's Tralfamadorian mind and his appearance in the moment; death and life are meaningless; word choice of "flashing" and "thrillingly"

Round 2:  The recurrence of the motif "So it goes" in the novel makes death seem meaningless, thus making the life of the person who died, or as Billy Pilgrim would likely argue, experienced death, void of meaning as well.  This idea paints every human being as an "it," a machine.  This is in contrast with the argument that Vonnegut is making.  The passivity highlights the inhuman nature of war.  The motif paints war as simply a slaughterhouse.

Round 3: Kilgore Trout's stories aid in carrying out the argument or theme of the text, in providing somewhat cynical stories around the idea of the human condition -- thus encouraging people to act differently; ppl don't like reading books where ppl die and fail, but this is the true world -- the money tree is an example of the portrayal of human greed

Round 4:  The Edgar Derby tragedy, instead of being the climax of the book, is simply another "So it goes."  Despite being the killing of one of Billy's companions in the dramatic death by firing squad, Edgar Derby is just another death.  Slaughterhouse-Five does not attempt to really have a climax in trying to convey a Tralfamadorian-style plot line.  The book jumps around in plot, but goes together like the Rocky Mountains.  Also, Edgar Derby helps shape the idea of fate versus free will, in that Billy likes to point out the superficiality of his death.

Round 5: Showing humanity in times of war is seen as a weakness (pillar of salt) -- people have to move on from negative experiences -- introduces Tralfamadorian concept of time from the get-go.  Billy doesn't have to look back, because there is no back.  Poo-tee-weet at the book's end shows the curiosity of a species as to the destructive force that humans possess.

Round 6:  Vonnegut does offer some hope, and ultimately by portraying war as inhuman, he shows that humans, through utilizing free will, have the capability to end the mindless slaughter that is war.  In particular, I think of the movie rewind: bringing the bombs back through the bomb bay doors, and preventing destruction: it can happen, but with belief and free will.  People must realize how dehumanizing war is.

Round 7:  I disagree that Vonnegut supports a Tralfamadorian view of time.  The consequences for a universe governed by a Tralfamadorian view of time are the deprivation of human dignity and free will, really the things that distinguish human beings from other species.  Vonnegut instead seeks for people to act humanely, respect the lives of beings, and not engage in the massive slaughter that is war.  He wants people to be themselves, and not the Tralfamadorian aliens that have a massive disregard for life.  War embraces a mob mentality.  If people recognize the way that war leads the human condition, they will not go to war.

Quote-Comment-Question

Quote: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference." (Vonnegut, p. 60)
Comment: This quote brings to light Billy's perspective on life given to him by the Tralfamadorians, where time is the fourth dimension and is cyclical and non-linear.  He believes that when the universe has time, and is made up of predefined, structured moments, it's very difficult to know what one can change and what one cannot.  In many ways, this is also an idea that Vonnegut is attempting to convey in Slaughterhouse-Five.  That people should cherish the good times, and forget the bad -- because there is nothing they can do about it.  Vonnegut is struggling with the idea of fate versus free will.
Question: Can this quote be extended to fit a commentary on life of Vonnegut?

Person 1 and Person 2
Mike: "So it goes."  Both this and the above quote attest to the idea of fate versus free will; Jesse brought up the fact that when Tralfamadorians die, they say this simple phrase because they think not about the poor condition of the person today, but the great life they lived.  This and the above quote, and the idea of the alternate perspective on time of Tralfamadorians in general contribute to the fate versus free will debate.  Vonnegut may share the Tralfamadorian perspective of fate, or that of free will on Earth, which might be more predestined.  This was all fashioned through war, and an ideology of what war brings to us.  The Tralfamadorians may all be seasoned war veterans.  He is using the Tralfamadorian view of time to argue something else.

Person 3
Jacob talked about Jesse's quote about Billy Pilgrim setting the scene, and Mike mentioned the significance of Vonnegut's voice.

War takes from you your humanity; going back in time fixes you.  Chronology matters.  It makes you cynical, and takes from you the free will and innocence of youth.

Precious Knowledge Reflections

       "It's not all about the individual and how much they try. There's something in place that's stopping them from achieving their goals." I agree with this quote, and disagree with the people who say otherwise. In all single stories, there is a truth. But it is not complete. It is definitely about hard work to get what you want -- but even this, what you want, which could be less than you deserve -- is enforced by the societal systems, institutional and environmental, that govern our daily lives. Evaluating systems of oppression, in racism, classism, sexism, and from an intersectional perspective helps shift our focus to the real problem: the roots. The roots shape the individual, and their identity.
       "Studying race is contrary to American ideals." I disagree with this quote because America's founding, all presidents will agree with, was based upon the idea of the American dream, that anyone should be able to achieve anything if they work. But because I agree with the above quote that there is something in place that stops individuals from achieving their goals, systems of racial oppression and injustice, bias that we often are not conscious of in critical aspects of who gets what and how today (like in the justice system), I say that the American dream is incomplete without looking at race. America has always been a place of diversity, a place of refugees, immigrants, welcoming all -- persecuted, oppressed, sick, poor; of all races. And recognizing the impacts of these in the struggle to live the American dream, to be Americans, is critical. The freedom to learn your identity is also important in finding yourself in the world, also synonymous with an American ideal.
       "When you grow up in a poor area, you don't have the same chances as everybody else." This quote is powerful because of its truth that people ignore, or fail to see because of circumstances. Everyone deserves the same chance, but not everyone comes into the world with it. This is why education should do the job of giving people that equal chance, through mentoring and empowerment of youth. People who are poor have to work to support their families, often do not have help at home to get them through their studies, or have resources necessary for achievement. I have always had a computer at home, and parents who have time to help me, but some of my friends do not, and this is not fair. This is classism, and it goes hand in hand with racism -- youth of color who are poor are especially burdened by societal stereotypes that go with their race, hindering success.
       "We are being told we’re not part of America and not part of this culture." This quote makes me wonder what America really is, if these Latino students are being told they are not part of America. Is American culture white culture? I am frustrated with those people who do not embrace Mexican culture, Nigerian culture, Chinese culture, for example, as American culture. Again, it is roots that empower people to achieve. America is all this, and it is this mix that people should embrace.
       Mexican-American students feel passionate about their high school's Ethnic Studies program and its preservation. It gives them a sense of empowerment and family, while giving them meaning in education that they were not necessarily receiving before and helping the students to achieve. When Arizona politicians look to eliminate the program on the basis of color-blindness, apathy, and lack of perspective, they respond with fire. The students go to prepare testimonies to uphold their school's program when a bill proposing to reject it passes through committee, bring legislators into their classroom to hear what the Ethnic Studies program is like, engage and orchestrate symbolic awareness events, and advocate for change in ideas among legislators through protest and marches. Their solidarity to uphold freedom to learn information that will help their lives is beautiful.
       I think the documentary is more about the Ethnic Studies program itself, that is, an effort to decolonize minds, to empower youth. This rises greater out of a movement towards censoring curriculum and colonizing minds. It shows the hypocrisy of the efforts of legislators to pass a bill that would censor curriculum. A female state legislator said that the goal was to empower youth through education. The Ethnic Studies program was doing it, and education norms were not. The decolonization was powerful in the protest, and it showed an effort to keep Chicano culture alive.
       The César Chávez quote is all about empowerment and pertains directly to the decolonization efforts of Mexican-American adults and students in the movie. The knowledge that they learn in their Ethnic Studies class is precious because it shows them that they do not have to be oppressed anymore. They can move past obstacles in solidarity and education. I love the quote, and think it is very powerful. When an idea takes root, it cannot leave. Change can reverse oppression. It makes me think about moving from innocence and apathy towards experience, as youth trying to make impact in the world.

TPCASTTs of Poems

Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title
Theme

Root Words ~
T: The source of life and being for the Dakota people, their home grounded on identity and culture
P: The prairie grasses are like the Dakota and their language, with deep roots that keep them alive despite much oppression
C: The poem itself is an extended metaphor of the prairie grasses surviving through droughts, floods, and fires of white, colonial influence to stand tall because of its roots -- the Dakota language; the words of vast inland sea is the tradition of the Dakota, which used to be alone, and wide and powerful before colonialism; unremitting and surviving show persistence; the roots are being broken at the bottom, but they are too deep to be fully severed
A: Solemn and pensive, spiritual; sad yet resilient
S: The movement towards showing oppression that the Dakota faced is a shift, as well as at the end from English to the Dakota language.
T: The language of the Dakota is strong and ceaseless, powerful in its roots in the land
T: Language brings people together and has roots in our identities, so powerful that it cannot be lost

We Come from the Stars ~
T: Homelands and origin of the universe
P: The universe is expanding; the origin of the Dakota universe is Bdote, but the astrophysicists know that stellar nucleosynthesis expands the Milky Way; the stars are leaving; the people will remain as long as they are still in the stars, a part of the universe
C: The stars are leaving with the Dakota universe and culture; the excessive glow of cultural invasion causes mitigation of the Dakota universe; the Star people are at one with nature, complete, and bright
A: Knowing, solemn, reflective
S: The shift is from the story of creation of science to the Wicanhipi Oyate's story of origin.
T: The Dakota people have a connection to nature that is prevailing and more complete than science; they were their first
T: People's belief in their origins gives them a sense of power

Mni Sota Makoce

1.       When Wasicuna's father says, "It is hard to be an Indian," he is referring to the roots of the American Indian people being stripped from them and the struggle of living life without an identity.  Wasicuna alludes to the fact that the struggle of American Indians today has its roots in past colonists' oppression and forced assimilation into white society, and has been perpetuated by oblivion.  Dakota history, until recently, has not been a part of American history.  People are instead taught falsehoods solely from the perspective of colonists, that do not reflect truth or Dakota ideals.  To have people learn lies about you takes away a truth from your identity.  But overall, the Dakota people have a sense of respect for everything.  For the land, the water, and the people.  All people.  Largely, in the past, white people treated the Dakota with abhorrent disrespect, taking their home: the land.  But the Dakota people did not fight back with violence; it is not in their way.  As a result, they lose themselves.  It is hard for them to stay in touch with who they are today, as American Indians, because of the past.

2.       Another claim from Wasicuna's foreword is that one reason that the true history of the Dakota people has not been taught in schools is their honorable nature -- listening always.  This has made the Dakota history distorted, false, and untold.  People cannot have solidarity in their hearts, as a result.  Names of Minnesota cities like Shakopee and Chaska are misspelled and mispronounced, and the stories are shallow, Wasicuna says.  Furthermore, the Dakota people accept this, because they listen.  They were told not to be who they were, and they lost themselves.  Wasicuna states, "we were told not to speak our language and we listened."  As a result, their language is on the brink of extinction.  Wasicuna appreciates a move towards people seeking to hear Dakota stories, 150 years after the Dakota-U.S. War, so that healing can finally take place between people.

3.       The chapter is titled "Homelands" because it tells of the rich, spiritual connection that the Dakota feel to their home.  It talks about the meaning of home, the location of home, the presence of home in the Dakota language, and the spiritual nature of home.  All of these ideas contribute to a greater importance of home for the Dakota people.  Home is the land, where the Creator originates, and where life has meaning.  Therefore, taking away land -- home, earth, Ina, the mother -- the life that it provides is taken away.  Bdote Mni Sota, the confluence of the two rivers, is the home.  The spiritual home, where all Dakota are from.

Dakota 38 Post-Viewing

1.       Dakota 38 helped me show the impact that colonialism has today, to people close by.  It shows the importance of understanding how the past affects the present, and not forgetting it, but reconciling with it and moving onward.  Reading Things Fall Apart brought to my attention the evils of colonialism, but not its impact today.  The way in which colonialism puts a knife on what holds people together and splits it apart (Chinua Achebe) has reverberations generations after the first settlers come.  In the United States, it led to an indigenous population that lost about 15 million people over the course of four centuries.  It also led to a growing disappearance of Native American tradition.  American Indians in Minnesota lost their home, and with it, love, security, and comfort.  They were forced to assimilate into white society, and had to leave their happiness.  Still, today, many American Indian reservations have somber feelings of loss.  Because of colonialism, it is difficult for them to continue their native practices while being successful in society today.  A hatred of white people is another lasting effect that was interesting.  Despite kindness shown in the film, many American Indians, understandably, cannot get over what happened in the past.  Colonialism, at home, has torn at the lives of Native Americans.

2.       The main conflict presented in the movie is that of the struggle of Native Americans to find their place in society today, by upholding their cultural traditions and reconciling with the white people who oppressed them.  Causes of the conflict are broken treaties between colonists and American Indian tribes that unjustly displaced them, actions of the American government to criminalize Native Americans and force their assimilation into white society (boarding schools, etc.), and racist sentiment that perpetuates tension between whites and Native Americans, still boiling over today.  Essentially, the causes of the conflict are the results of colonialism on the part of the United States, and the conflict is recuperation.  Effects of this conflict are poor quality in the lives of many American Indian children, who have the highest suicide rates of any other race in the U.S., but also, healing directed by American Indians like Jim Miller, who are seeking to uphold native tradition, in addition to current efforts of the United States government towards affirmative action, and betterment of the quality of reservations.  To overcome centuries of oppression and loss of identity is a difficult battle, but the American Indian people have always been resilient.

3.       An image from the movie that will stick with me is the riding of the horses against the whipping snow, and really, the music.  This resilience in riding, in upholding Native American tradition to heal is powerful, and the music gives soul to this fight.  I will remember the words of the boy whose brother is moving away, and is losing is family, and how he will take back the strength in his own identity that he received from the ride to his life.  Another is the warfare of Vietnam, which blends in well with the violence at Mankato as senseless and evil.  It shows also how much the film is about the idea of coexistence and peace.  Understanding differences, and respecting them, going along with Dakota values.

CER on Things Fall Apart

       The vice of colonialism is brought out by the hypocrisy of white settlers in blindly achieving their ends, condemning already established culture despite knowing scarcely anything about it.  Yet it also festers in the native people who blindly follow these settlers, and polarize their homeland as a result.  As the threat that the white people pose to the Igbo people and the realm of Umuofia becomes increasingly grave, Obierika and Okonkwo have a conversation that channels author Chinua Achebe's perspective on colonialism.  They say, "'Does the white man understand our customs about land?'  'How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?  But he says our customs are bad...  How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?  The white man... has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.  He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart'"  (Achebe 176).  Unity is what makes a community strong and well.  It is also necessary in resistance to colonialism.  Therefore, the way in which colonialism takes its toll, by attracting native community members to colonists, fosters disunity.  This diminishes the impact of any resistance and ensures that the settlers will have power.  It is the metaphorical knife with which white colonists, Achebe says, tear already established communities apart.  This passage's tone of gravity and severity, as well as use of metaphor, extend the impact of this idea.  Colonialism preys on those who are susceptible to influence and pits them against their community members, in a rejection of the cultural traditions that keep them together.

Danger of a Single Story Response

1.       Single stories are dangerous in many ways; this word is accurate, but really a single story in itself of what single stories can do.  Single stories are pervasive.  They spread like epidemic diseases, giving incomplete perspectives about a group to myriad people.  Single stories are insidious.  When they are told, they have truth, and this makes them seem harmless.  This makes them told more and more often because their simplicity and the categorization they offer is desired.  They give truth, but an understanding of a people or group that is false.  In doing so, they diminish the dignity of a group of people hindered in pursuing an identity they seek to project.  Single stories are crippling to the individual.  People around them think of them in a one, distinct fashion, and this burdens them from being themselves.  They want people to know them, but with the single story, they do not.  Single stories are polarizing.  They make one people distinctly different, and focus on these rather than numerous similarities between people which would serve to bring them together.

3.       As Chimamanda Adichie says, power is closely tied with the idea of a single story, and what single stories are told.  She uses the Igbo word nkali, which loosely translates to "to be greater than another," to describe the concept to listeners.  If who is in power is the storyteller, than those who do not have power -- because they are in the minority, because they are oppressed because of beliefs, or because they are simply perceived as distinctly different -- do not have their stories told.  American history is almost always told from the perspective of the white colonists because they had the power: they were the people who conquered and progressed with advanced technology, and the idea that they were superior to the Native Americans already there because of their vastly different societies, which made these Europeans view their ways as "savage."  Yet if the story is told from the Native Americans, whose stories were not told because they did not play a role in the development of the American state, but were pushed aside with intolerance and disregard to the oblivion of posterity, the complete story would change.  We would see incredibly complex societies torn apart because of power.  Today, voices of whites are elevated by their greater number and American tradition of institutionalized oppression against people of color, and especially, black people.  Their stories are told and told in greater number because of opportunities which arise from power.

5.       As a writer, Chinua Achebe is conquering the idea of the single story by showing the complex, sophisticated Igbo society in Umuofia of Nigeria.  American readers who have the idea that Africa is a one-dimensional place of violence have their views and projections of the world altered by Achebe's writing.  He shows that Africa is a place of extreme diversity, in which different countries have very different stories, by presenting a very unique culture and society in Nigeria.  Furthermore, he puts readers into sorts of intellectual traps by making readers draw conclusions about Igbo society as a whole solely by Okonkwo's perspective.  This is a single story about men in society, and he shows this to us by later offering other perspectives.  An example of the integration of the idea of the single story into Things Fall Apart is in the men's discussion of varying gender relations.  They see that their idea of how genders should interact is not the same as those in other villages.  Overall, the destroying of single stories in the readers' minds plays into the terrible impact of British colonialism.

Rabbit-Proof Fence Responses

3.       The idea of a home is central to an individual's identity.  A home often has your family, has memories and experiences of yours, and has love, safety, and comfort, all of which foster the preservation and development of your identity.  This identity gives you strength in yourself and a sense of belonging in the world.  When you are deprived of your home and all that comes with it, you lose a sense of dignity.  This is the story of what happened to the main characters Molly, Gracie, and Daisy in the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence.  Because they were forced away from Jigalong, their home and place of Aborigine culture, to assimilate into white, Australian-British society as half-castes in the Moore River Settlement, they almost immediately attempted to escape.  Molly led the charge to go home, with dogged determination and perseverance to continue that was motivated by her quiet dignity.  She refused to let Mr. Neville and his people take away the sense of self that she, her sister Daisy, and her cousin Gracie all had.  Throughout the long journey, and even when Daisy cannot walk, the group continues onward, seeking redemption against the whites who interned them and pursuing the sanctuary of home.  Tracker Moodoo shows his pride in the will of these girls when he says his only line of the film: "She's pretty clever that girl; she wants to go home."  This statement shows to us the admirable quality of perseverance against adversity to maintain one's identity through home.

6.       Talking embodies spirit and livelihood.  Talking establishes power and influence; those with a voice are those who win in society.  It is in this way that silence is a theme in colonialism, and how it was used in the film to illustrate this idea.  Those with voice and power were the British, and those who had their voices taken away were the Aborigine.  Much of the speaking in the film is done by British colonial authority imposing their will on Aborigine people.  Silence, too, shows the lack of transparency about the evils of the colonial process.  Colonialism rapidly and quietly forces native peoples to comply with invaders.  A lack of dialogue could present the idea that colonialism, as it happens so abruptly, gives words, and in turn, the individuals who speak them, minimal staying power.  But at the end of the movie, when Molly and Daisy's mother, grandmother, and other Aborigines are chanting, a shift in silence to words indicates a power shift to the Aborigines in maintaining their identities.

7.       The namesake for the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence is very powerful.  The fence is both a symbol for the preservation of identity and the love and security of home, in addition to resilience of characters against British colonialism and their coercive assimilation of Aborigine peoples.  When Molly comes into contact with a person on their escape route, she asks them the direction of the Rabbit-Proof fence.  We can tell that this serves as a sort of destination for the girls when we can see their palpable happiness when they reach it.  They know that the fence runs all the way to their home, a place they associate with love and safety.  The fence also serves as a symbol for resistance against British colonialism and the preservation of Aborigine identity and ideals.  The rabbits can symbolize invading British colonists to an already established Aborigine world -- they are stopped by the resilience of the fence of Molly, Daisy, and Gracie.  Yet the fence could also, earlier in the film, symbolize Mr. A. O. Neville's resistance to Aborigine people and his ideas.  He fences in Aborigine culture in an attempt to "Britainize" it.  However, the prevailing image is certainly one of Aborigine toil to maintain their home against adversity from those attempting to strip them of it.  The fence in the movie conveys the conflicting tensions of colonialism -- resistance, assimilation, preservation, and protection.

Poems

My Blood ~

My blood is my home
My blood is my fam
My blood is Jewish tolerance and pursuit of happiness
My blood is Catholic toil and boogeying...
It's Grandfather gettin down like Frankenstein
Gets better as you sip it, so much like fine wine
Children who love, parents who care
Tyson looking me down with a stare
The Gunners the Raiders the Wiz and the Hoos
The kids always win, the parents always lose.

-- They are my fam too
They flow my blood through
John Wall
Latkes
Basketball
Soccer.
Selling out
For the squad
No doubt
We'll applaud.

For people who do them
And make sure that the truth is heard
No matter what
Who aren't afraid to go away from
What they know
To be more complete
Learners and listeners
Eager to change the world
My doorstep is your own

My blood flows through peace
And love
And joy
My home is everywhere and anywhere.
For any people who light up the world.
For anybody.  For anybody.
Mi casa es tu casa
I want to hear you
I love you.


Ice in the Books ~

The bouncing basketball buckets sating that fire for...
Sliding superficial soccer slingshots soaring through the sky for...
Making the last shot, gliding on high for...
Winning the medal, jump in the sky for...
It's icy but cold for...
What? It's the joy of getting yelled at to win a...
Game?
Flying on by going for the...
Fame?
Selling out, books and hook (shots), it feels the...
Same?
Look.
I run the court like John Wall
Make 'em fall
Runnin' past 'em so fast they can't think
"Hey coach, please give me a drink?"
Defenders, they stop, drop, and roll
We're not in a fire, y'all are so droll.
Look.
Ice in those veins that leave dreams deferred
The meaning of life, it ends up...
Blurred.
It can bring kids up, and take them down.
But freeze that moment, unless you're LeBron...
'Cause not many are gonna reach stardom
Truly, the ice is in the books.
Look.
School is what will make the world...
Shook.


Phoebe ~

Phoebe
Named after goddess of the moon
The same moon that looked upon you at birth
It glowed, an orb in full
And every night when I look up
I see you
A glowing orb
Of light.
In the darkness
A truth
Of boundless joy

Phoebe
I remember
When you were Yoda
Your crinkled, adorable face
Knowing in a way unknown

Phoebe
You're my zippy prophet
You run
And run
And run
Spreading warmth to everyone

Phoebe
Your smile
Lights up a city
I swear it does

Phoebe
What a beautiful name
Your eyes make the skies sparkle
And the heavens, you put them to shame

Phoebe
When I am down
You are up
Always
Eternally
My moon.
Of light.

Phoebe.
I love you.