Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

Our Class America Poem - Remix for Extra Credit

America

America is a knife in the back
America is a gang
America is a cold hair on the back of a polar bear
America is an illness
America is a disease
America is a blind priest
America is married to the money
America is a free for all
America is a school with no boundaries
America is an empty pot of gold
America is a sea of stereotypes
America is a kid
America is a crying baby
America is a broken bone
America is a bully
America is a hardened heart
America is a dark alley
America is a black hole
America is a superhero
America is a Walmart parking lot
America is crossing lines backwards
America is freedom itself
America is an open field
America is Rack M Willie
America is a chess game
America is a question without an answer
America is a Gemini
America is a web of lies
America is throwing its hand in the air
America is a painted canvas
America is a time capsule
America is a fishbowl
America is a mask of secrets
America is a talking parrot
America is a race
America is a welcoming redneck
America is a homeless person
America is a party mix

The Pjs

 The Pj's is a television show that gives a visual of how life is lived in the Projects (an urban community). The show use to be aired on The Wb, Adult Swim, and Fox. Now the show can be viewed on Tv One. The show includes a crackhead, a violent old women, and immigrant, a biracial couple, a superintendent and his wife, two kids, and a voodoo lady. The show portrays racial stereotypes that are in public housing. They live off of food stamps and nobody in the building pays there rent on time. The television serious shows crackhead stealing things and the African Americas getting accused for everything. It portrays a great amount  of violence within the neighborhood and no police to come and help. They send the same police officer because he is the black one. The people who live in the projects appears very uneducated and they never graduated from High School. The show does not show the positive things but mostly focuses on the stereotypes and bad things in urban communities  

Madea, the Symbol of the Typical Black Woman?

Tyler Perry, other wise known as Madea,is a global symbol of the typical African Amercian woman.  Being naturally agressive, yet at the same time caring to others in the house hold.  Being a man of great sense of humor, could his symbol be seen as a racistal figure as well? think of Madea from another race's point of view, how would you react towards black females knowing they could be like this symbol and be aggressive at any moment? would you be afraid to aproach said females?  These are the questions that come along with modern day society. 

There are many things that can be used to descibe african american females, but tyler perry likes to stick to the "facts" and "stories" that come along with this culture of females.  In african american households, the female is portrayed as the ruler of the house.  She lays the laws essentially, but at the same time she isn't the ruler. The african american male obeys the females rules but he knows he is controlling, but doesn't need to say so.  Basically speaking, the African american female plays a strong role in her household.

Seventh Son Discussion~Reverend Thrower and The Millers

Why would Reverend Thrower have such a negative view of the Miller family?  Well my opinion on this subject is mainly because of Alvin Sr. himself.  He doesn't believe in God and this goes against everything Reverend Thrower believes in.  HE hates teh fact that he has tried multiple times to convert the nonbeliever but it has never worked.  He feels like a failure in the eyes of God.  

When it comes to Faith, he sees her as one of the biggest sinners of the family.  Why? Because she practices "witchcraft" of hexes and whatnot.  These acts are against God and of the Devil. And everyones knows that the Devil is a Fallen Angel and goes against all of Gods' plans to make the world a better place.

   Then there is Alvin. Thrower is stuck on teh idea, that the Visitor gave him, that he must convert Alvin Jr. from his evil ways and stop being the Devils' Advocate.  In chapter 13, Thrower was going to perform the surgery on Alvin to get rid of the bad part in his bone.  His plan was to "accidently" cut a main artery and Alvin would therefore bleed to death.  Nothing but pure Evil.  But for some reason, he was not able to stay in the same room as the saw and the knife so he just left the house.

Thrower can say all he wants, but he shouldnt even be attempting to kill a ten year old child.  Not even God, would give him the power to kill another human.  He may call himself a man of the Word, but he should know this truly. 

superstitious

In the novel The Seventh Son, the devil is described to a young man named Alvin.  The describer states that the devil looks like "the horns of a bull, claws of a bear, hooves of a goat, and has the roar of a ravening lion."  The young man replies to this saying "An you call us superstitious."  From this conversation between two characters, i wonder if ones self can believe in a religion and at the same time, not believe it is indeed superstitious... 

Within the novel itself, a family called the Millers, see themselves as a superstitious family, The local Reverend "thrower", also see's it this way.  As a reader, in some sense i see the Reverend himself as a superstitous person.  He tries his best to force a religion onto a young man, who is uncapable of understanding the figure "god".  Is this how he should spread such a godly religion? i think not.  Along with that note, he wishes to kill the young man because the thinks he is the devil.  Being a man of god, could he take gods power into his "own" hands to kill one of "gods creations"?

In some sense i belive that the image of god we ourselfs have created is somewhat superstitious, no human on earth has ever seen this "God" but we still believe he is there.  Other cultures have many gods..doesnt it seem unnessesary to have multiple gods that withhold the same powers? could it not be possible that one "god" created us all, and not the the power of multiple "gods"?  For that matter, wouldnt having "A" god be superstitious enough? i believe that this "god" might just be a figure of the human imagination, and at the same time just a figure of history, not actually a person.

My Views On Security And Protection In Our Society

So. . . what I think about society and all of these problems that we have we need to fix them. The whole thing about security being taken on to more measures about terrorists is dumb. People need to show identity information to prove that they are who they are for certain things like at airports and jobs is way too much. I know and understand people need to protect things like that but if you know that your not on that then whats the point. Security is like everywhere you go but if it helps and protects us then im for it. Also I feel like some people who do get stopped and questioned for who they are and if they a terrorist because of they way they may look and act upon is embarrassing especially if its publicly! Like if you look like your from the middle east then your considered a terrorist. That's a complete stereotype. But yeah those are my views on the whole thing with security and protection.

Boston Massacre Review

Well from what I learned about the Boston Massacre in class lately was that Captain Preston and his soldiers came to the square because civillians were complaining and rioting about the taxes, debts needed to be paid, and people were owing money to others, etc. People were getting hurt because of this. Tar and feathers was used to scare others and were used on people speaking out. A good amount of people died during the massacre including a former black slave Crispus Attucks. The seven soldiers and Preston were all tried in court and they all ended up being not guilty. There were several witnesses in this crime but they all were saying same , but different views on what happened. People speculated over Preston's location in the massacre and witnesses say that he was in front of the army or in the back but no one was sure. Im glad I wasn't born back then, things seemed violent and chaotic.

 

Comic Book Art Work

During my field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, I saw alot of paintings, photos, and other very artistic things that caught my attention. One specific piece of art work that i liked was a painting of George Washington. The photo contained different shades and other things that made it stan out. The face was made out of the cirlces that were used to make comic books. Alot of people still read comic books.

So for the artist to actually show that the facial features were made out of the circles really caught my attention. The shading of George Washington really made me think about a comic book because the shadow was actually white with a black background.It really showed the contrast of colors. This picture was the only one with a topic that connects to my personal interests.Shows the different types of ideas that people had during that time.

A Day At The Art Institute

 

Our american studies class went on the 1st field trip to the Art Insitute of Chicago to explore artwork and talk about American Society. This picture above is the stairs thats in the middle of the building. I found it interesting because the words were different colors and speaked alot about things in out society.
The second picture is like a classic photo. Everyone has probably seen it or heard about it. I like this painting because of the texture thats used like you can see and feel how its made. The painting creates a warm bright feeling and it explains how one day everyone has umbrellas and sitting on the grass by a lake. The painting creates a realistic feeling.

The field trip made me learn about what art is and how it can tell a story and how you can be so creative with little or no materials. I liked the experience.

Photographs in The Art Institute

When the class visited The Art Institute, we examined and studied a series of photgraphs that had to do with war, death and pain. Many of the photographs showed beautiful houses and very nice scenery but death invovled with it. For example, one of the photographs was a picture of a beautiful house with a lady crying, carrying a bloody child in her arms, running upstairs. Even though the backgrounds seemed nice and peaceful, the actual things that were going on clearly didn't match its surroundings. These photographs gave the audience an idea on how America sometimes seems to be; war-filled and death. These negative things are shown everywhere, even in beautiful places.

Seaperation of Mayor and Church

Is it right to try to make a pastor give up his church because he wants to be Senator of Chicago. Well State Senator James T Meek  feels like he shouldn't have to give up his massive South Side church and be Mayor of Chicago.  Even though there are people that feel like he shouldn't have a church a be a Mayor of Chicago because they feel like he will combined the two and he would put his church needs before his senator needs. He argues that he is manging his church and is a state senator at the same time and nobody has a problem with that so what is the difference. But despite the people that will not vote for Senator Meeks he already has a strong lead for the race for Mayor With 22,000 parishioners and 25,000 signatures already gathered. I think that Senator Meeks should be able to run for Mayor of Chicago and not give up his church. I feel this way because although some people feel like there should be a seaperation of Mayor and Church I feel like if he his already a State Senator then what is the difference. But don't let my arguement affect you, read the article your self.

Chicago Art

For the people who had the chance to be a part of the trip to the Chicago Art Institute were honored, I thought. The art that was presented in the " Modern Art" section was really cool and in my opinion was better then the rest of the museum. The reason I say this is because as a teenage student, modern anything is always cooler. How may times do you get to see George Washington in comic book form? Or a piece of art that was made up off light bulbs. It was a sight to see and it is a shame that people had to miss out on something so beautiful. My personal favorite was the painting that spelled "City" in what looked to be water ripples. It was so nice looking I made it the background to my phone. Another cool piece of art was this painting with two solid colors on the canvas, black and yellow. Just two solid colors with no designs, and i was confused because I asked myself how is this art? Then I found my answer when i tilted m head side ways like the lady standing next to me.

Snyder v Phelps

The supreme court has been hearing a case pertaining to the 1st Amendment right the case is Snyder v Phelps.  Snyder a Marine Corp Lance Corporal was killed in Iraq in 2006.  When it came time to have the funeral which is a private and very serious event members of the Westbro Baptist Church protested at the church of his funeral with signs that read "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "Fag Troops" and many other. 

The court has a very tough decision to make because they can not take away the free speech of somebody even if it is very hurtful and just down right wrong.  They do express sympathy to the family of the fallen troop but it is a tough decision to make.  Who knows when they could come to a just decision.

For the full story here is the link.

Witch Crap. . .

4. Could we have another witchcraft hysteria in present-day America -- even if it's not exactly about witchcraft?

I honestly feel like we "could" have another witchcraft hysteria in present day america. I feel people got bored with themselves and started this whole thing anyway. Just because it all started in 1692 and its 2010 now there is no change in the way people act. Personally I dont believe that this stuff is real, and im sure there are other people that feel the same as me. It still amazes me that this topic was a HUGE problem back then. I feel humans go over and beyond for anything cause theres crazy people in this world!! If I were to yell "witch" and point at a random lady theres a select few people who would look and laugh, because yet again ill say some people really dont believe that witches, and goblins, and anything else in that nature are real. BUT then there would be the CRAZY people who would go along with me and fall out saying shes hurting them with her eyes.<-- CRAZYY PEOPLE BEING DRAMATIC!!! I strongly feel back 1692 they killed innocent people. I dont believe anyone was a "actual" witch. But this is where humans bring out there acting skills and once you tell yourself something and start to believe it, it becomes real to you and to others. Then people get out of control and start to go over board, and start lieing, and start acting as if something is wrong with them when its really not. No matter how old the world is or the time frame were all going to be the same. 

Order vs. Freedom Senate Race

In a race for a Senate seat to represent Alabama, Tim James made a controversial add in order vs. freedom. I must state in this post, it might have some statements you disagree with and will appear controversial, I do not mean it to be. In this add, James asks why the state drivers test is given in 12 languages. He claims that this is America, we speak english. But is it correct to give state tests in languages other than the national language?

 

 

I say no, because in America, English is the national language. If you want to live here, or live here already, you need to make an effort to understand the language the majority of America speaks. At the DMV, as we all know, it is hectic already. Making a state test in 12 languages, only complicates the matter. There should only be one language that the test is made of, english.

If you live in America, you will encounter people daily speaking english. If you are an immigrant, you have to take a test about America, so why not learn the language that America speaks. I am speaking for most of America in saying that, if you live hear, attempt to speak the language.