Assignment FIVE

In the story we come across a poem that Harold has writen on a wall with red lipstick. The poem reads "Dirty girls get mud in their eye, They eat maggots and die, Break brains bad things bad things, They all die down in my pantry" (Mosley 152). Harold is described as a homeless bum living in the streets but with the evidence of his writen poem we know that Harold is able to read, write and display complex thoughts in writen form. This now demonstrates that Harold is an intelegent man not just a common bum with no education. In 1965 many   African Americans did not read due to the economic class structure so to find a homelessman with an education could have been very rare. The fact that Nola was strangled to death then shot in the head after she was dead displays a sense that this murder was personal and emotional. Harold did not just commit a random murdur and Nola was not a random victim, she was chosen and what ever she did in her life affected Harold and she payed for it with her life.

Blog Assignment Three

One very interesting thing that came to mind while learning about the race conflicts were the rapes that took place. White men would rape their black female slaves during the pre civil war era and would continue the rapes during the post civil era. My problem with these actions is that while white men hated, despised, and feared the black men, why would they engage in sexual activity with black women. I do not understand how one can hate a race and still feel sexually attracted to its females. It is very strange that a white man would betray his white wife and children and assault and rape a black woman. Were engaging in sexual activity between races not allowed? if so then why risk damaging your name and reputation if one got caught. was this act of violence some kind of a right of passage between a group or achievement or trophy of some kind? some modern theories of rape include that the person committing the rape is an insecure person who is trying to establish dominance by rendering their victims helpless and violating the bodies of a weaker person. this theory would make sense in the post civil war time because the insecure white man may want to dominate their enemy in a sexual matter to which they may feel superior to have taken away some ones purity or to have violated some ones temple. The body is the only possession that supposedly one really truly owns and to violate that possession it to ultimately dominate that person.   

Blog Assignment Two

The lynching of blacks was a symbol of southern white American unity. we have spoken in class about how the lynchings were used as a means to control the black people through fear and total dominance. This is all true but I feel that this was also an event which brought southern white Americans closer together as a community the same that when the New York Yankees are in the world series all New Yorkers will cheer for them not because they like the Yankees but because a team from New York has made it to the highest level of competition. although the the objective violence was between the white Superior race against the black monster it was a visual symbol that the white people would over come the dangerous menace that were the blacks. the symbol stood for power in the sense that the whites were the dominant species and no one could contest with such power. the body of the  lynched black person shared the same meaning of the trophy that is won by team in sports, it is a symbol of accomplishment and dominance over the competing teams. in the story the red record when the ashes of Henry Smith were collected by the viewing public was just the same as the people who collect ticket stubs from entertainment events, a symbol of pride in the sense that that person witnessed greatness, a souvenir of the white team beating the black team. in a way the lynchings could have been considered the first American past time like baseball is today.

First Day of class

I was very surprised to find that my professor was a young guy with what seems to be passion for what he teaches. my experiences have not all been positive and its rare that we get some one who comes along and is passionate about the subject and makes it interesting and fun for the class so that the students were interested in coming. I for one am looking forward to the next class session to learn more interesting facts on the subject at hand. violence seems to be the tool in which progress is done, its how we acquire food, hows countries are born and how history is made. as a psychology major this class holds great interest to me due to the mental aspects of violence and to understand the logic and reasoning towards it. It is also very refreshing for a professor to teach about the dark history of the country and to see how violence was a crucial tool in the molding of this great nation. It was a treat that we were able to see a few scenes from Gangs Of New York a film my Martine Scorcessy. The film shows a decent recreation of the town known as five points in the downtown area in manhattan during 1863. The film centers around a character played by Leonardo DeCaprio who has returned to New York to get revenge on a man who killed his father. although the film has a main story of vengence it also displays a story of the city and how it lived during this era and how it has progressed with its fragel but violent history. This film is great and i look foward to more classes on such interesting topics.