IRB Intro #3

I chose to read Letters to Sam by Daniel Gottlieb because it has been in my home for a few years now, and I figured I might as well get to reading since I have the chance to do so. The short subtitle on the front seems to describe a very good read, so I am excited to get started.

TOW #16 - "Coatesville"

This week I read "Coatesville" by John Jay Chapman, an account of the lynching of a black man in Coatesville, PA not fifty years after the abolition of slavery. He gave this speech during the prayer session held a year after the tragedy in remembrance. His belief that slavery was not an institution but a disease is what interested me the most. He proclaimed, "With the great disease (slavery) came the climax (the war), and after the climax gradually began the cure, and in the process of cure comes now the knowledge of what the evil was" (73). This metaphor of his got me thinking that he was both right and wrong in his comparison. It is true that slavery can be accurately viewed as a disease, and the Civil War can be viewed as the point of most-affected, but I disagree with his view about the "cure" to this disease. Yes, the country has come a long way in terms of the treatment of African-Americans, but we have such a long way to go. Unfortunately, racism is something that will never truly 'die out', similar to how a disease or infection is never permanently cured or proclaimed to be extinct. Also, I noticed how Chapman utilized the emotions of his audience by saying how the blame and the burden of the tragedy rests on the shoulders of not just those who participated in it, but everyone who knows of it. In other words, he wanted us to understand that it is our job as American citizens to ensure that the injustice that occurred on this day is not forgotten. It should serve as a reminder to all that the consequences of racism and discrimination lead to suffering. Another aspect of Chapman's essay I enjoyed was his comments on the fact that the men who participated in the lynching of this man were just everyday people. Reading this reminded me of an essay I read about the steps it takes to reach "hate" in concurrence with the events that took place during the Holocaust. Chapman and the author of this essay would have agreed that it doesn't take much to change an ordinary man into a ruthless one. For example, many of the Nazis were people you and I could have known, they simply joined Hitler either out of fear for themselves/their families, or blatant blindness. Men joining in with racism and race-related violence fall victim to the same idea. They either fear that the hatred will be turned towards them, or they simply do not know that it is wrong. All in all, despite Chapman's essay being quite heavy on the sad side, I feel that is was important for me to read. Therefore, I would also recommend it to everyone else looking for a quick read; it provides occasional but crucial reminder that we should not forget the injustices and tragedies of the past.

TOW #15 - Saving the Twinkie

I chose to analyze this visual text because how hard I laughed upon seeing the facial expressions of the deranged citizens losing their minds over the end of the reign of Hostess. I think it is such an accurate representation of our society for more than just the obvious reason of America loving its fatty foods. Looking at the background, there is no landscape; the people are simply standing on barren wasteland, which emphasizes the woman's "SAVE THE EARTH" sign. Most people would think this is just about a cartoonist cracking jokes about how Americans acted so desperately upon realizing their Twinkies were going to disappear. It is a very thought-provoking way to show how because Americans acted so desperately about the Twinkies (along with many other occasions) they failed to realize the thing they should be most desperate about saving...the Earth they plant their feet on to protest about Twinkies. The author of this visual text was very clever in highlighting how many people often fail to see the bigger picture of things, or fail to think too far ahead for fear of what the future might actually hold. Instead of taking action individually, people are more likely to say to themselves, "Oh, well, there's plenty of people in the world, so someone else is bound to take care of the problem" when crisis-related issues (that require actual hard work) like the future of the Earth arise. BUT, when taking away one's ability to stuff their pie hole full of hydrogenated fat ridden, cream-filled sponge cake, we suddenly see the greatest call to arms since the war efforts of WWII. This has turned into a bit of a rant, but I felt it was necessary to get that deep into the idea behind the photo.

TOW #14 - "Notes of a Native Son"

This essay is one of the most complex and conflicted pieces of literature I have ever laid eyes on. It focuses on the characterization of James Baldwin's father, a man often filled with rage, and how his time being alive affected Baldwin more than his death. Upon starting the essay we are dropped in the center of recently segregated Harlem, where Baldwin spent most of his early life. His large family is constantly at the hands of his father's angry episodes. What I found most interesting about the relationship between Baldwin and his father was that no matter how loudly he yelled at Baldwin, or how angry he may have gotten, he never failed to show how much he cared about him. Despite a severe lack of paternal affection, Baldwin's father loved all his children deeply. However, not one of the children had even a flicker of a relationship with him, "When he took one of his children on his knee to play, the child always became fretful and began to cry; when he tried to help one of us with our homework the absolutely unabating tension which emanated from him caused our minds and our tongues to become paralyzed, so that he, scarcely knowing why, flew into rage and the child, not knowing why, was punished" (Baldwin 222). This way his father acted unfortunately led to Baldwin never really speaking to his father, and his death brought him now sorrow. I found it so strange that even though he loved his father, he never got to establish a healthy relationship with him, which got me thinking about the possible underlying causes to this. My first impression was that the father had some intense damage to his psyche, which would most likely have been caused by a traumatic event. Given the time period this essay was written (1955), it is possible that Baldwin's father had fought in WWII, and a lack of being taught proper coping skills for the effects of war would most certainly ignite an infinite inferno in someone's mind. It may just be a another crazy thought of mine, but judging from the father's constant '180s' between loving and 'losing it' really struck me. It also struck me oddly that the author did not make this a larger focus in the essay (more 'towards the surface' perhaps)...Baldwin ends his essay by noting how hatred can destroy a man, which I think is really important to remember because very few family/friends attended his father's funeral, and reading this was a very awakening and moving reminder how our demeanor can really affect our surroundings.