How are you interpreting Jim? What meaning are you taking away from the characterization of him in the text? Is he an example of a minstrel? Is his characterization contributing to double consciousness?
I am interpreting Jim as a slave who is a person with lots of potential to become a great person. He is a very religious and superstitious person, I don't blame him in the first place because back at that time there wasn't much education offered to many black slaves. So I think that's a factor in why he so superstitious, although in the context of the book he does seem as if he is the humor of the story. I can compare him to a minstrel but then again he is a character that is there for the reader's and people's entertainment not because he is making fun of himself, it's just that is how he is as a human being. Jim is just being himself, only because he has his own characteristics and because that's how other people view him based on his humiliating events and beliefs.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Blog #5
I know for sure that racism/sexism still exists today.One of my findings is that I think that my work place is actually one of them. When I first started working at the restaurant I'm working at now I wanted to be a waiter, yet the manager assigned me the job of a buss boy and food server. I also noticed that overtime when she hired new people it was the males that did the labor jobs, and every new female face I saw always had the waitress job. I still work for the place because I need to survive in this recession but that right there is a prime example of sexism. The other day I was watching the news on TV there was a Muslim family that was refused by American Airlines because the wife asked the question " where's the safest place to sit?". After that they were denied from getting on the flight. Racism/sexism is still around today and that people today still take it seriously, now here is a controversial one that's got a lot of people talking is that a rapper by the name of "Nas" not too long ago released an album and titled it "Nigga". How are we in society suppose to react to something such as that especially when a white teenager or person wants to buy it in a retail store? Are they looked upon differently than those people who have black skin color that purchase the album? We see it everyday yet because Obama's president now racism is over, but not by a long shot.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Essay #4 rough draft
4. How do people perceive you? What do they base these perceptions on? What do you think about the ways you are seen by others?
I have been through elementary and I have been through high school. The way I am viewed by other people is reflected and determined by the way I look. I believe that people look upon me as an Asian American, not an American citizen. What I have to go through while growing up has a lot to do with who I am today and how I am viewed by others. I am viewed by other people by whom I am on the outside, yet that doesn’t reflect on who I really am as an individual person. They only see my outer characteristics, my weird language, and the stereotype of what it means to be Asian. With These sayings I am a person who you can’t just compare to every other Asian they’ve seen, whether it’s from their own experience with Asians, or from the media or from their parents raising them to view me in that way.
I want to explain a little bit of what it means to be an Asian American. America’s society has created its own image of what Asian people are through the media. I am looked upon as a person who must excel at every aspect at school. We drive around in our imported Japanese cars, or we are savages because we eat dog or cats. First of all my family doesn’t eat dog or cat, that source exist only in Laos, the country my parents are from. People eat what they can get their hands on because they are very poor out there, they face extreme poverty, but it doesn’t mean that all Asians eat it. Japanese super cars are just part of Asian culture that got real popular in the U.S., it probably originated from Asia but it also doesn’t mean that I have to own or drive one. I work hard at school because my parents want the best for me, so they push me to motivate me when it comes to education. This goes for every other parent out there who wants the best for their children; it’s just that my parents are pretty strict about it. As for the media, especially Japanese anime has nothing to prove that I’m Asian, like again it’s just a popular fad in our culture. I also think that my language plays a huge role in how people view me.
I speak Laotian because it was the first language that was taught to me. It was the only my parents could communicate with me when I was growing up. And its part of my background and it’s a piece of who I am and where my family originated from. I also use this language to communicate with my other relatives such as uncles, aunties, cousins and the elderly since they don’t speak any English. I do admit that I have a bit of an accent and don’t really sound like the typical average American kid growing up either. I used to be made fun of when I was in elementary, the other kids would laugh and joke about my language because it seemed strange to them. Some of the students look at me as if I was mentally challenged because I had a hard time learning English. Even then I felt deprived of my humanity when other people hear my language it annoys them, they’ll yell or shout in a rude way “speaks some English will you!” I used to really feel offended and ashamed of my own language because it wasn’t quite Chinese, and I used to wish that I was born into a white family. It used to hurt a lot and I would always make a fuss about it to my brothers and friends. Today I embrace it only because besides my memories and language, it is all I have left of me as an Asian American. While every day I don’t speak it, it fades away slowly as I become more Americanized. I think to myself it wouldn’t matter if I was some other ethnic while growing up because it’s just how people view me in this society.
I remember back in high school, my appearance made a big difference to the how other students thought of me. I didn’t have fancy clothes because I couldn’t always afford new shoes, new clothes, or backpack. It also had to do with who I hung out with and felt comfortable around. Since in my high school there seemed to be a growing problem with gangs, I was labeled a person who associated with ABZ commonly own as an Asian gang who represented the color blue. My slanted eyes, my light skin, my short height, and the way I spoke are just factors for other students to use and continue to believe about the stereotypes of who I am inside and out.
I have been through elementary and I have been through high school. The way I am viewed by other people is reflected and determined by the way I look. I believe that people look upon me as an Asian American, not an American citizen. What I have to go through while growing up has a lot to do with who I am today and how I am viewed by others. I am viewed by other people by whom I am on the outside, yet that doesn’t reflect on who I really am as an individual person. They only see my outer characteristics, my weird language, and the stereotype of what it means to be Asian. With These sayings I am a person who you can’t just compare to every other Asian they’ve seen, whether it’s from their own experience with Asians, or from the media or from their parents raising them to view me in that way.
I want to explain a little bit of what it means to be an Asian American. America’s society has created its own image of what Asian people are through the media. I am looked upon as a person who must excel at every aspect at school. We drive around in our imported Japanese cars, or we are savages because we eat dog or cats. First of all my family doesn’t eat dog or cat, that source exist only in Laos, the country my parents are from. People eat what they can get their hands on because they are very poor out there, they face extreme poverty, but it doesn’t mean that all Asians eat it. Japanese super cars are just part of Asian culture that got real popular in the U.S., it probably originated from Asia but it also doesn’t mean that I have to own or drive one. I work hard at school because my parents want the best for me, so they push me to motivate me when it comes to education. This goes for every other parent out there who wants the best for their children; it’s just that my parents are pretty strict about it. As for the media, especially Japanese anime has nothing to prove that I’m Asian, like again it’s just a popular fad in our culture. I also think that my language plays a huge role in how people view me.
I speak Laotian because it was the first language that was taught to me. It was the only my parents could communicate with me when I was growing up. And its part of my background and it’s a piece of who I am and where my family originated from. I also use this language to communicate with my other relatives such as uncles, aunties, cousins and the elderly since they don’t speak any English. I do admit that I have a bit of an accent and don’t really sound like the typical average American kid growing up either. I used to be made fun of when I was in elementary, the other kids would laugh and joke about my language because it seemed strange to them. Some of the students look at me as if I was mentally challenged because I had a hard time learning English. Even then I felt deprived of my humanity when other people hear my language it annoys them, they’ll yell or shout in a rude way “speaks some English will you!” I used to really feel offended and ashamed of my own language because it wasn’t quite Chinese, and I used to wish that I was born into a white family. It used to hurt a lot and I would always make a fuss about it to my brothers and friends. Today I embrace it only because besides my memories and language, it is all I have left of me as an Asian American. While every day I don’t speak it, it fades away slowly as I become more Americanized. I think to myself it wouldn’t matter if I was some other ethnic while growing up because it’s just how people view me in this society.
I remember back in high school, my appearance made a big difference to the how other students thought of me. I didn’t have fancy clothes because I couldn’t always afford new shoes, new clothes, or backpack. It also had to do with who I hung out with and felt comfortable around. Since in my high school there seemed to be a growing problem with gangs, I was labeled a person who associated with ABZ commonly own as an Asian gang who represented the color blue. My slanted eyes, my light skin, my short height, and the way I spoke are just factors for other students to use and continue to believe about the stereotypes of who I am inside and out.
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