Class Notes 4/25

Today we are talking about the present and thinking about our knowledge of our past shape our lives today. We also talked about Black Lives Matter and Malcolm X and his life. We started out by thinking about human rights in our contemporary context. We did a reading accountability about Black Lives Matter, Hurricane Katrina and the way it affected our school, home and church lives. We also wrote about the essays that we read for today; “Black and Blue” and “The condition of Black Life is One of Mourning” and how they tell us about the state of racism in our contemporary context. The Black Lives Matter movement has been made easier to see with the invention of social media and that allowing people to see the way that Blacks were treated throughout our American History and even in the current society. It is offensive to say all lives matter instead of black lives matter because it diminishes the way that people feel about the suffering of the black community.

Dr. West then started talking about the 16th Street Baptist Church shooting and the Mother Emanuel. We learned that the Black church has been a target for white supremacist groups because the churches are the only thing that the Black community could own and control and the white supremacist groups tried to take that away. We then talked about the devastating Hurricane Katrina and how it affected the people of New Orleans. We then saw the statistics about the Hurricane and out of the ones who could not evacuate, 93% were black. The statistics also showed that the most devastated part was the ones in poverty. As a class, we then moved to a class discussion about “Of Poetry and Protest”, and the way that it talked about the murders and the way it had the list of deaths. Jordan made a comment about how important the movements are and that they have to work together to make the movement work. The essays set the stage of continuity of history with racism.

The two essays that we read for today, gave us a good look into the different treatment that whites get from blacks. We look at “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning” and can see that the continuity throughout our history and present of racism. The following quote caught the eye of us today in the discussion and shows us the way that the Black community lived through their days knowing that death is common amongst African Americans. “Dead blacks are a part of a normal life here” she would say it with very little emotion like they were very common amongst the African American lifestyle in the United States. The ability to tell your story and being heard is a huge stepping stone for moving forward with our history and present. All during our history as Americans, there have been differences between different types of people. Some were affected more so than others, for instance, the black community has been affected by the memory of slavery amongst other Americans. “Walking is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other, however walking is not so simple if you’re black” - (Black and Blue). This quote shows that not only is hard enough to live in the present, but when you have all of the stereotypes and memories of the past to live with, it makes it even harder. If you’re a part of a black community in America then it is tough for you and that’s why this quote was a big part of our class discussion for the day. Another quote that we talked about for the day was, “Do not run you have no rights”  (New Rules of the Road 87). This poem had a unique style it was written in to show that it was similar to the miranda rights, and that it also had no continuity.

In the end, today’s lesson was about breaking the continuity of racism. When you think back across American history, you can see little glimpses of racism no matter what era you are from. In the modern day, we have the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the Mother Emanuel shooting to show us that although we are not completely segregated like our predecessors, we are still drawing imaginary lines across the race gaps in America, whether we know it or not.  We as a whole need to break the continuity of our past and bring out the new age for all people.