Blog #9

Last class we got to discuss the issue that Cotati dealt with a few weeks ago regarding one of the councel members that dressed in blackface and post it up on his blog. I was personally shocked that someone of such high power would go this far in an issue that has to do with race. This came of as racist to me, i feel that he went to far, painting his face a different color to try to appear as a black male, not only that but also wearing the afro. It was as if he was making fun of them, he showed disrespect to the african americans. Not even after Obama got eleceted president did people's mind of poking fun at other people change.

Peer REviwe For Essay #4

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book that has caused a lot of controversy throughout the years. From the day that it was published until now. Mark Twain published this book in 1885, with the intent to let people now how life was back in the day. People are very skeptical when it comes to this book for the fact that it demeans African Americans by using the word “nigger” numerous times. Back in the day the word “nigger” was just a word that could be said without people giving you a second look. This word was mainly used by the whites towards their slaves. Slavery was big in the nineteenth century. I believe that Mark Twain knew all the controversy that this book was going to cause and he chose to still publish it for the fact that he wanted to maintain the realism and the historical accuracy of this period of time.
African American didn’t have an opinion or a voice, they were always told what to do and were unworthy. At times when I would read the book I would feel bad for the names that they were getting called. At times I felt that it was too harsh to be published but thinking about it it’s just informing us of how it really was. This is what really was being said and how they were really being treated.
Times have changed drastically, and it’s almost as if Mark Twain knew that this change was going to occur, like if he wanted us to get a real good look at how African Americans had to go through. Many people can take this book as being racist but it all depends how you look at it.
When schools allow students to read this book I think that it should be made clear to everyone that the word should not be interpreted as it is now, which now a days it is meant to be something demeaning and racist, but to understand the way Mark Twain wrote it. Which he was trying to tell us how it was used back in the days.



These are jsut like the main topics to my paragraphs i still need more details and examples=)

The N word

For my paper i will be writing of how i portrayed the N word being used. Back then this word took a lot of offense, it was a word used to categorize an african american person in a very demeaning way. I personally think that now a days people are more open to the word and have come to understand that it was a word that was used back then and shouldt be used now. Thats why i think that some schools are ok with the book. For the reason that Mark Twain wrote this book back in 1885. In my paper i will adress how many and in what ways the word is adressed.

Blog #7

The video that we watched was very upsetting to me. I realize that the police officer was doing his job but he didn't have any compassion to the situation what so ever. I feel that he really abused his power of authority. Once he heard what was going on he should have been understanding and let him go see his mother in law in her last minutes before she died. The officer was just telling him everything that he could do, like give him a ticket, tow his car, and even take him to jail. Instead of just giving him the ticket was was just provoking him to get more upset, because even after Moats was calm and not talking back the police officer just kept on going. I think Moats did a really good job with keeping his cool. Racism was definitely a factor in this incident, if this happened to be a white family i think that things would have ended a lot different. I am glad to hear that the officer has resigned.