Debate in Urban Minority Class

I had a debate in my Urban Minority class that I felt related to this class and wanted to share it.

The topic of discussion was of the wrongful search and seizure law that police officers commence against minorities. Several female minority students agreed that this law has been missed used and abused but 1 African American male student felt that the law was a good thing. He stated that it helps because police officers are taking the chance to find something wrong and if they didn't find anything then at least their just making sure of everyone's safety. That is were we disagreed with him, because we felt that police officers assume that majority of the minorities are doing something that they shouldn't be doing. That the police officers are invading out privacy.

The debate then led furthered into a discussion about wrongful arrest due to discrimination and assumption as well as police officers taking advantage of their weapon usage. The male agreed that these too are promoting safety which of course us female students did not. I asked the man to put himself in the shoes of minority men who were accused of looking like another minority who committed a crime and was wrongfully charged and arrested. The male then stated how that has happened to him 3 times and he has 3 lawsuits and makes a lot of money off of it. I asked him is that why he felt it was right for the authorities to discriminate and he said yes. He's felt that as long as he was making money off of racism then it was okay, which we all (those who disagreed with him) felt was ignorant. Why would someone want to be discriminated against?
I brought up the recent situation were a young African American boy was chased down, shot and killed in his own home by white police officers because they assumed he had a gun, which he did not. How I felt that police officers should not have guns because it promotes violence in our neighborhoods. That the reason why many minorities carry their own weapons is because situations like that young boy who was killed, where police officers misuse their weapons and as people who once were hunters and gatherers do what they can to survive. That if police officers did not carry harmful weapons, their would be a less percentage of us carry the same type. They male of course disagreed.

The professor let us debate about this topic for close to an hour because it was a such a good topic to discuss although we didn't get to finish. But I was and eye opener for both sides of the parties and I felt it related very well to our classroom conversations.

Trip 2 summary

Yesterday’s trip was my first time attending the New York Historical Society and for the most part I did enjoy myself. Even though this has nothing to do with the main purpose of the class trip, the first thing that caught my attention was the giant marble statue of a Native man next to the coat check area. Immediately after seeing that work of art, I knew that there would be other works in this museum that would interest me. But as far as the entire experience in its self, I enjoyed the time travel effect when walking through the World War II exhibition. The maze of the exhibition made learning more entertaining, but that’s not all. The way the information of the war was displayed helped bring this devastating moment to life.

The story of the exhibition basically summed up what World War II was all about. It spoke of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1933-1941, the creation of the nuclear bomb, the Nazi genocide, the March on Washington, and many more. All of these miniature stories combined created what was known as the “most destructive war in history” (N.Y.H.S.).  After walking through this exhibition, I’ve learned that the totally of deaths were an “estimated 60 million” (New York Historical Society).

Some information that I’ve read at the New York Historical Society about the bombing of Pearl Harbor was that Japan attacked U.S. naval base on 12/7/1941. This attack “killed over 2,400” (N.Y.H.S.), “wounded 1,200” (N.Y.H.S.) and damaged “14 ships and almost 300 planes” (N.Y.H.S.).  Japan had the support of Germany and Italy.

I’ve also learned that New York City “contributed about 900,000 citizens to the military” (N.Y.H.S.) and many of those New Yorkers were shipped to battle fields in Europe and North Africa.

On August 6^th and the 9^th, the United Stated of America sent planes to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, 135,000 people died and 50,000 died in Nagasaki. This led to Japan surrendering on Sept 2^nd of 1945.

Trip 1

I attended the museum the day after the class did and I was very interested by the entire museum in itself. It's a gigantic place, enough for someone to get lost in the world of arts and history. When attending the exhibition of "Photography and the American Civil War", I was struck by the intensity of the photographs. They all seemed to have told the story about about everyone who lived during that time period even though it didn't show each person. I'm sure all colored people were going through the same situation as the next and so for the white Americans. Not saying all were the same, but the struggle was probably just as intense as the next person. Slavery was still a big part of society at that time so there was a bunch of discrimination and racism going on. 

As an artist, there were several pictures that brought out tones of emotions. I wanted to were about many but the 3 I've decided to go with we're the "Rebel Works Infront of Atlanta Georgia", "Laborers at Quartermasters Wharf", and "Ordnance". The reason I picked  these pictures where because I wanted mixed images to study for this blog. "Rebel Works Infront of Atlanta Georgia" was my landscape selection. Even with the absence of people in this image, the strength of the location is just amazing. It's screams war scene because of the naked trees, trenches and destroyed grounds. Looking at this photograph, I was able to tell that there was a bunch is death and destruction here. That people fought for several reasons. Whether for their country, or freedom, they still fought for their lives, and even if they didn't make it alive, their story was still told through the emptiness  of this scenery. "Laborers at Quartermasters Wharf" was the second photo I wanted to speak of. This image showed hard working people, and not only that but it showed the hard working people before them. The history of the slavery. All of them carrying different instrumentals showing that they all had different jobs and responsibilities. But what made this picture so strong was because even though they were torn physically, spiritually they were connected and seemed in unison with one another. The last photograph I wanted to acknowledge for this blog was "Ordnance". I was drawn to this photo because the artist actually painted over this picture to bring it to life. The details in the clothing, although they aren't extravagant, they are well put together and adds more gravitas to the photo. Also the color contrasts very well with the dull (grey) portion of the photograph. 

Slave and Citizen

In the writing "Slave and Citizen", the author speaks of how there was a difference in slavery in the United States and Brazil. He states how not only did the darker colored persons owned their own slaves but they had more opportunities in Brazil that they did not have in the U.S. They were able to acquire their freedom several ways in Brazil, for example: slaves could by their freedom, obtain their freedom on special occasions, etc. In the United States, slaves weren't given the same chances. If a child was born into slavery, they that's where they would stay unless a miracle happened. The reason for this being is because the slave masters didn't was to take any chances of losing money. It was all about greed and how much more money they could make in their pocket at the end of the day. The more slaves they had, the more they could make a living by having others do their work for them. Without getting paid.

I never new that dark skinned people owned slaves. That was something that wasn't taught to me. I couldn't imagine people of the same background enslaving their people, but I guess that's what make them more lenient towards freeing their slaves.

The Declaration of Independance

Before attending this class ( Violence in American Art and Culture), I didn't know the translations of the Declaration of Independence well. The last time I read about it was in high school, and my history teacher didn't go in depth with what it actually meant.

When attending the first class of ENN and listening to the professor break down each part of the Declaration of Independence, I was shocked. I was never one to be interested in politics, but this made me interested. To know that Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter stating that the people (rich white men) have the right to retaliate against their government if they are not being satisfied was just beyond belief because he segregated himself and his type of people even though he was president.

This made me think. Since majority of the people today have no faith in their government, why are we not retaliating? Now that society has changed and women and the darker skinned community have "equal" rights, why are we not using our voices and taking action to build a new government that looks out for all people and makes sure we are all satisfied and pleased with who we put in office.

The government is all about greed and isn't afraid to take us down, but they cant destroy us all. They need the people in order to run the society. Without us, there is no them.