Suddenly, the same folks who promoted nativism and zenophobia were eager to believe that the Euro- origin people they deported, reviled as members of inferior races, and prevented them from immigrating a few years earlier, where now middle class white suburban citizens.
(Brodkin)
It is strange how the times change. Viewpoints do one-hundred and eighty degree spins nearly overnight. The example Kaye/Kantrowitz use to illustrate the separation of Race and Religion in Christianity is powerful "Do white Christioans feel kinship with African American Christians? white slaveowners, for example, with their slaves? White Klansmen with their black neighbors? Do white Christians feel akin to Christians converted by colonialists all over the globe?" White Christians with slaves is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. No where in the Bible does it make it alright to own a human being. Also look at the crusades, killing and destruction all for the sake of converting the world to one religion. Why? Money.

"Introduction", "Possessive Investment"

By inverting the reporter's question, Wright called attention to its hidden assumptions-that racial polariza- tion comes from the existence of blacks rather than from the behavior of whites, that black people are a "problem" for whites rather than fellow citizens entitled to justice, and that unless otherwise specified, "Americans" means whites. In this passage from "Possessive Investment in whiteness" it shows the pre-civil rights movement mentality of blacks existance being the problem instead of equal citizens. this kind of thinking comes from the structures of inequality that stem from the idea of whiteness. in effect this kind of Idealism makes it impossible for a person to know the truth about systems of oppression because they are taught from a young age that people are to blame, not the invisible structure.4 To identify, analyze, and oppose the destructive consequences of whiteness, we need what Walter Benjamin called "presence of mind." Benjamin wrote that people visit fortune-tellers not so much out of a desire to know the future but rather out of a fear of not noticing some important aspect of the present. The aspect we have been missing for much to long is the seemingly unnamed "whiteness".

class reflection

Today there was a meltdown. Not enough people, including myself, have read all the course texts by the time we were supposed to. Andrew stated that at the end of the semester the class would not like what happens to our grades because we took responsibilities for our readings but did not do them on time. It seems like there needs to be some sort of democratic solution for this predicament. Maybe we can weigh the different parts of the syllabus differently to benefit the class as a whole once grade negotiations start.

Reading Notes: Stone Butch Blues, key words- sex and queer, and valentine

A lot of the oppression and hatred that Jess feels in Stone Butch Blues are cause by "hot" words such a sex and queer. She is a Butch so she dresses like a man. Throughout the book the issue of which bathroom to use causes her a lot of pain and suffering because of the ridicule of others. This ridicule seems to stem from misunderstanding of the "linguistic tools which extract certain information, experiences, and feelings about ourselves and others from the stream of daily life for the purposes of making meaning about, and representing ourselves and others"(Valentine p.31). Another interesting point about the language of "not straight" is included in Keywords -Queer. "'queer' is sometimes used interchangably with the terms gay and lesbian and sometimes transgender and bisexual." Valentine also talks about reclaiming certain words for their correct meaning. Once notices that the most of the time that the girls are treated horribly is in the police station after they are busted at the bars. The police men rape, beat and humiliate the women because they are afraid of what will happen to their heterosexuality if women are then allowed to portray male qualities.

Class Reflection Nov 9

Today we sought to amend the attendance policy. I am not very interested in that, but I am interested in the fact that A^2 said that we can amend any part of the sylabus. some in the class related First Person plural to the Torrecilha reading by comparing how they wonder who they are really. Do we really even know our culture? America has always been culturally diverse. We then discussed the three readings on the board and then went on to formulate a few questions to start of thursdays discussion.

Reading Notes November 2, 2010

Valentine talks a lot about language. More narrowly he talks about language surrounding Gender and Sexuality.
"They are linguistic tools which extract certain information, experiences and feelings about ourselves and others from the stream of daily life for the purposes of making meaning about, and representing ourselves, and others."
Each person has a different filter to view these words through. that filter is their life experience meeting the incoming words. They filter out the things they do or do not like, based on how they feel about the subject, and then they infer a meaning instantly.
In stone butch blues this is apparent when the police brutalize the butches. they are afraid that if they don't do something about these lesbians, it will somehow diminish their role as masculine males. Because they do not understand the meaning or the daily experiences of being a lesbian they are afraid of the difference that the term gay may produce.

Conversation Reflection. October 28, 2010

Today we watched a Film entitled First Person Plural, by Deann Borshay Liem. The film and the assignment A^2 assigned helped me to put together some of the central ideas about English 150. One thing I put together was difference. Because Dean was Korean, she felt she had to impress her American parents so that maybe she would be reunited with her Korean Family. this is interesting to me because she was so young that she barely remembered anything of her original home. She felt some fundamental yearning to be with people that looked and acted like her. This key aspect of difference could be a innate reason why people in general have a hard time getting along. Deann admits during the film that she loved and cherished her American, adoptive mother because she was dependent on her for survival. So this love for her false mother could have been purely primitive survival instinct. Although, her mother loved her as one of her own, she never felt quite right. Once she gained Independence from her mother, and moved out of their house, she started to feel the yearning to know her mother and family again. It seems that people want to group up with people like themselves, who have a lot of common culture. Is this why when people of other cultures disagree with each other they turn to violence and war? People of different cultures and races do not completely understand what it is to actually BE someone else. They don't know how to live somewhere else. the only way to do that, is to fully immerse yourself in another culture. That seems like a tall order. Now take into account how many YEARS it would take to understand the motivation, joy, sadness, hope, recreation, social etiquette, family structure, class system, government and almost an infinite amount of interactions of an entire culture. Are we all to different to get along?