Melody

I plan to read the slave narrative of Annie L. Burton. It is entitled Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days. Just from the title, I can expect that I’m going to be reading some very disturbing material. I already know a ton of information about slavery, but there is always more to learn. The detail that strikes me the most is the story of the woman who stayed in between some boards in a wall for seven years just to escape slavery. She would watch her children get whipped through a peephole. It also said that the highest place in her alcove was about 4 feet high. From what I hear, slavery was awful, but I really do not know how bad it was since I don’t have a first hand account.

In this narrative I expect to hear slavery from a child’s point of view. I don’t expect anything mild or pleasant, because slavery is far from that. Most narratives I have read before contain vivid details. I like reading them because they make me thankful for my life and reveal how horrifying slavery was.

Racism. Such a powerful word. One of the most important things I always think about when I hear racism is that racism affects all races, not just African-Americans. In fact, if you were to look at everyone’s first racism post, you will see that the majority of them (including mine) are regarding African Americans. Racism against this certain race is such a prevalent theme in our history and our society that we often only focus on this race. I think this is a trend that has happened from white and blacks constantly creating friction through (most importantly) slavery, police brutality (involving race), the fact that there are very few African American leaders comapred to Caucasian leaders in this country. Also, I agree that racism is definitely more than just a mentality. Racism can also include actions and, like the article said, opression.

In this sketch, Colbert argues for the reinstation of the draft. He mentions Iraq and some statistics to influence his opinion. The “Word” shows some subtitles that can possibly communicate what Colbert is really trying to say. For the completely objective viewer, the subtitles are a helpful tool that explain Colbert’s true meaning. Unfortunately, some of these references were too outdated for me to understand. I’m sure they are funny. Colbert is being satirical because he makes fun of the draft making it seem like a completely understandable idea, while the rest of the subtitles convey ridiculous and blatant comments to take away from his argument. Anyway, Colbert really hits home with satire.

After today’s discussion, I’ve been having second thoughts about my personal opinion on Iraq. First of all, I am sure that there are other options that I haven’t thought about (after all, we were only given three options to choose from), but I keep wavering back and forth. Now I wonder if we should just pull completely out of Iraq and see what happens. It’s our fault and at this point we don’t have much to lose. There are obvious problems with this idea, but I would love to hear some other solutions. This whole war is just not only horrible, but it is embarrassing to see the country struggling to make sense of what is going on. The entire war is not our fault, but us being the most powerful country, we had to intervene and make something of a war that wasn’t ours to begin with.

NEW YORK (CNN) — The Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday he refused to accept an apology from actor Michael Richards, who spouted a racist rant at a comedy club last week.

Everyone remembers Michael Richards’ rage on stage recently, where he said some horrendous things and seemed like he had totally lost it. The video of him doing this online can be seen here: [youtube]U7MqfmBEghM[/youtube]

Just to forewarn you, it’s not pretty. You can see why this has created such a controversy. Michael Richard’s said some things that frankly, I think cannot be apologized for, no matter how much you stress your regret. Even for people who generally do not hold grudges, it was just so unbelievably rude and almost inhuman. The Rev. Al Sharpton, although he did not accept Richards’ apology, he agreed to meet with Richards’ and try to address racism.

Richards’ apology can be found here: [youtube]17YpVKf1ro0[/youtube]

Racism can show who a person really is, and what level they will stoop to to show their hatred for someone else just because of the color of their skin. There are little kids more dignified than Richards that would still know simply not to say the things he said. Racism can come from many places, but it seems that the most common source of racism comes not from the pure hatred of another race, but from some internal problem of the person, whether they feel insecure or cornered or maybe even weak, that they need to lash out at another group to make themselves feel worthy or “powerful.” Unfortunately, this is definitely not a good method to solving your own issues, but racism is still a very prevalent topic in today’s society, because people turn to it to avoid facing the problems they have of their own.

The genre of writing known as “satire” encorporates elements of the human experience that verify human existencein a way that vindicates the vivacity of life as experienced through the senses. Readers or audience members, depending upon the medium through which the satire unfolds, often connect on a personal level, expressing through comedy the common man’s frustrations with society, politics, and human interactions, i.e. the status quo. Satire is one of the most popular forms of comedic entertainment because almost everybody can relate to it. Borat is considered satire because it reveals deep social problems in our world in a very candid and lucid way. It is funny because it examines situations that are either true or seem true. I enjoy satire because it ridicules common themes of life. Shows like Family Guy and South Park are hilarious because they make fun of themes in daily life. My personal favorite is Family Guy.