Class Notes 5/9

At the beginning of class we started class with a presentation about mass incarnation. It talked about what 13^th had talked about as well. It discussed how people, especially African American’s were accused of things they didn’t do just because of their color. We then talked about Jordan Edwards and how to cope with his death, and how to view his death. We were shown a quote that talked about the death of Jordan Edwards and how his death should not be viewed as bad just because of how good of a person he was, but because he was a person. The quote also brought attention to the fact that through a Christian lens everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made, and that’s how we should talk about the death of people regardless if you felt they were worth killing or not.

We then moved on to talk about the poem, “Cells and Windows.” Professor West told us how this poem used institutionalized rhetoric. She spoke about the poem and how the author discusses a standardized test that is twisted so there are different right answers depending on what you believe. Dr. West also talked about how the author makes it seem that if this poem is a test she is refusing to follow the standardized rules. The author attempts to put the information in a box and categories and she proves that this does not work. The artist that the author is referring to also clumps things by colors and lines, and when referencing the artwork, the poet makes it known that we should not do that with people. She makes it known that this approach does not work. However, it has been seen all throughout history and still today, that people have been placed into certain categories due to their skin color or social class. This poem raises awareness to this issue, and the author wants the reader to know that approach does not work.

We then had a group discussion about the documentary 13^th. We all went around the room and discussed the impact that this film had on us. We talked about certain scenes and images that were most memorable to us, and many people stated how the film brought up different things about America, and politics that they had never known before. Some also stated that because this film discussed very current racial issues, it seems like nothing has changed from history in terms of racism. After this observation was mentioned Dr. West then told us about how it is easy to look at the film and think that very little has changed, and asked us how we as Christian’s can respond to that without just feeling helpless and in despair?

From this question the class talked about how society has changed, and as Christians we become more aware of what is wrong. We also talked about how there can be a redesigning of laws, rather than reforming of laws. This makes it hard to completely change everything. As Christians we can’t be surprised that the world is broken, we have to realize that evil is constantly changing its shape and when it finds a way that works, evil will redesigns itself.

Dr. West then put a verse up on the board from Hebrews that stated, “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.” (Hebrews 13:3) The class then talked about how we must remember those who are in prison whether they should be, or because they are not able to go to trial, or because they simply can’t afford bail. As Christians we cannot look away from those hard things. Instead we should step up and do the hard work. As the verse states are all called to be aware to those who are hurting, and to weep with them. We also discussed how should think of the best justice we can hope for in sinful situations while being realistic, because this gives us a goal to strive for because there is no perfect solution. We then discussed how it is easy to feel hopeless, like we can’t do anything, but we should not just settle for that. But instead continue trying and not giving up, just as Christ did not give up on us.

Dr. West then told us a story about how her eyes were open to the ways in which the world is set up and how it is easy for some people to move around, and harder for others (comparing to people with wheelchairs vs. people on foot, and how there are more stairs than ramps).  This Literature and Human Rights class has opened our eyes similarly to her experience because it has shown us new ways that the world has been set up to advantage certain people and disadvantage other people. We then discussed how this does not mean that white people were in fact bad and hold a secret hate in their heart for African American’s it just means that there are certain instances that we are now able to look at and dissect with our knowledge through this course to decide whether or not it was intentional mistreatment, or due to societal norms and beliefs.

We wrapped up class discussing Coates, Between the World and Me and briefly talked about three main quotes from the text. The first being, “Remember that this consciousness can never ultimately be racial; it must be cosmic” (128). This was explained as consciousness being related to the world and largely hard to understand. Therefore there is more too it than just racism, but much more that is hard to understand and has more going into it. Then we talked about that part of our responsibility is to care for the earth. We discussed the quote,  “once the Dream’s parameters were caged by technology and by the limits of horsepower and wind… (150) Dr. West told us how part of what we are after in terms of justice is how we treat creation as well as how we treat one another. It is not about blaming all white people for what has happened, but to resist the dream that we could perhaps have some kind of life that doesn’t have consequences for other people. The last quote we talked about stated, “I often wonder if in that distance I’ve missed something, some notions of cosmic hope, some wisdom beyond my mean physical perception of the world, something beyond the body, that I might have transmitted to you” (139).  This resulted in us talking about how she can respond to the death of her son through the church and faith. This is because faith is what allows us to face these situations with hope and not despair and seeing the world as physical struggle, but it is because of God we are able to know about a world after this place of sin.

We ended class going over the final exam and talking about what is expected of us for our final take-home.