Weekly Blog #8

African American Culture

When I think of popular African Americans (besides our current president) majority of names that come to my head are athletes. That also could be because I follow sports pretty close and find them more enjoyable to write about than theatre (the reading), or music or other cultural aspects. Therefore, athletics I think is a very good example of popular African American culture. I couldn't find a more recent percentage but in year 2000 approx. 13% of our population was of African descent. Going off that, 65% of the NFL is black, nearly 80% of the NBA is black, and about 70% of the WNBA is black. There are also many Africans in other professional sports as well. Those numbers show that athletics is an important cultural aspect.

Also, when you think of most professional sports the "best" players are usually African. For example, this picture shows Michael Jordan who is arguably the best player to play. And currently LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and many other Africans dominate the NBA. So I don't know I could say that athletics "best" depicts the Black/African culture but it at least plays a huge role and is a good example.

Blog Week 8

I have posted a picture of an exceptional slam dunk at a slam dunking contest. As we talked about in lecture on Tuesday, this is one example where a black aesthetic has changed American culture. The slam dunk is now one of the most exciting parts of the game of basketball and originated from black players of the game. While this display is definately a show of individual athletic ability, it also serves another purpose. Caponi writes about a slam dunk saying it also is a communal activity. After studying about jazz with its improvistaion and call and response, I understand what Caponi is saying. A slam dunk in a basketball game always illicits a response from the spectators and/or the other players. This is the purpose of the call and response. The slam dunk not only changes the tempo of the game by changing the normal rhythm, it is also an act of defiance. When a slam dunk takes place, it usually means there has been a disruption in defense or player mistake. This provides an opportune time for reaction. Then along with the spectators, the players and refs find themselves watching the action as if they are outside the game. In that particular time and space the game is changed and the spectators are energized!

Culture Blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7c2lC9JlJo


I believe that Aretha Franklin is one of the best popular icons in African American culture. The "Queen of Soul" is an expert in jazz, R & B, rock, blues, pop, and gospel music. She has a very powerful, loud voice, which is associated with black culture. Her hit songs such as "Respect" and "Think" helped lead her to where she is today. She performed in the Grammies with Beyonce, who is the new pop icon that little girls look up to today. She also sang at Barak Obama's Inaugeration. To me, she was the perfect person to sing such a beautiful song on such an important day in history. She has sang in many different musical styles that helped frame black culture througout the years, and she continues to remain one of the greatest vocalists in the world.

Professor Whaley Post: Media Examples for Tuesday, 3/10/09

So here we are, now, having finished the first half of the class. What's next? Your midterm evaluations, and culture, culture, culture! To get us started, here is our jumpstart discussion clips from the Wiz and the Wizard of Oz. Think through how the juxtaposition points to the what is this "Black" in Black popular, expressive, and performance culture:





Cheers!

Blog Question for Week 8

This midterm paper was challenging because it seemed like a very broad topic. I could have written eight pages on each of the time periods which I talked about, so I struggled when thinking about what information to include and exclude. Another problem I ran into was how to separate my paragraphs. I know some teachers want each paragraph to tie to a separate part of the thesis, but for this essay, the topics were very long. I had to break my paper in my paragraphs because they began to run on and seem too long. I enjoyed the topic because I thought that it is very important topic to think about, but I would have rather liked the option to choose one time period and write about it instead of four or five time periods.

Blog Question for Week 8

Writing the midterm paper was both challenging and rewarding for me. Some of the challenges included figuring out how I would organize my thoughts (the outline provided in class helped me so much). I also struggled with connecting my paragraphs and providing smooth transitions. Most of my challenges involved the structure of my paper. What I found most rewarding though was the material. I really enjoyed re-learning about all the ways blacks have resisted oppression and actually felt inspired by their actions. I really liked this assignment because it also was a really good review over the material that we have learned so-far this semester.

Homework Question #7

Writing this paper wasn't a very difficult process for me. I really enjoyed the topic but did have a somewhat tough time trying to incorporate only the most important facts into a small amount of text. The most difficulty I encountered involved which information was the most important and how much i had to talk about it. I also encountered difficulty that resulted in not starting on time..big mistake.

Weekly Blog

For me the hardest part to getting the paper started was getting the information together and figuiring out how to compile it so that it flowed nicely. There was alot of information and sometimes I felt flustered because we had many reading assignments and I didn't understand them. Because of this I struggled and had to go back several times and try to reread to understand the concepts. In the end the outline that you gave us helped a lot and It came much easier to get the paper flowing the way I wanted it to.

Essay Challenge

The hardest thing for me was finding a way to construct and organize the paper in a way that made since because everything in my head sounded good but as far as getting it down on paper, I was having a bit more difficulty in that area. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to and what not to include in the paper as far as evidence and events that happen to support my claim. I also had another paper due today so being able to split the time to get them both done was another huge challenge for me.

Midterm Response

I think the hardest part about the midterm was the broad topic. I could've written a six to eight page paper on one time period between the 17th century and now. With that being said, it was a bit challenging to find the proper balance between too broad and too much information. Also because the topics were spanning such a large time gap, it was a bit challenging to use the outside sources as effectively as I would've liked.
With all that being said, it was rewarding at the end to look back at a summary of the struggle of a group of people chronicled over the history of our country.

Midterm Response

I thought the hardest part of writing this essay was going back through the book and through the readings and finding quotes to support our argument. I feel as if most of my quotations came from Painter and the lectures, because most of the readings didn't talk about how African Americans resisted oppression and created a transformed culture. I thought the majority of them were focused on how the field on African American studies came about, so it was harder to pull quotes out from readings than I thought it would be. Overall, I thought that it was an interesting and engaging paper to write. I ended up liking this paper more than some of the papers I have written in the past.

Response to Paper

I think the most challenging part of the paper was organizing all the information. We have learned to much in both lecture and the readings, so I thought it was really difficult to harness all of the information and organize it to a way that fit with my thesis. I thought creating a thesis was very challenging as well, since the topic was so broad. I'm very happy to finally have my paper done; It was definitely a challenge! 

Midterm Paper Response

I thought the Midterm was a very effective way to evaluate our understanding of the course material beyond memorizing the historical facts.  The paper challenged me to analyze the historical context and understand African American response.  I found it difficult to cover such an extreme amount of history in 6-8 pages.  I did the best I could to emphasize the important aspects.  Overall I appreciated the assignment.

Midterm Paper

This paper has been the most thought provoking paper that I have had to write. It could be that I did not fully grasp the concept behind the question. That I over thought the question that I was being asked. Or the way in which I had to form my thoughts was not as accurate as I thought. The midterm took me more time than I had perceived. I had to take the time and think thoroughly about what I needed to do within this paper and how would I react to the knowledge that I was presenting. One thing that I hope to have done through my midterm is to ensure that I communicated my thoughts and concepts effectively to convey my point.

MidTerm Paper Blog

The most rewarding thing about this paper was finally getting it done. It was the toughest assignment I have been assigned all year so it was definitely nice to just get it done. The thing that was difficult about it was figuring out how to organize it and what all I should ad about each topic because there is so much. Overall, I think that the paper had a good level of difficulty for being a mid-term paper. I feel accomplished now that I have finished it because it was pretty difficult and time consuming.

Blog 7

I'll probably echo a lot of the other people in class, but the most challenging part of writing this paper for me was fitting all of the information in 6-8 pages.  I feel like I could have written more than 8 pages on each era I wrote about.  As a result, I feel like I left out a lot of information.  Also, I found this paper challenging simply for the fact that I have so much other stuff due this and next week.  At the same time, however, I felt this paper was greatly rewarding in that it put African-American culture in a perspective I hadn't thought of before.  I had never realized the transformed and distinct nature of the culture.  Ultimately, it really is a relief to have this paper finally finished.

 

Midterm Paper Blog

I found this paper to be one of the most challenging papers I've had this semester. I am so glad that I am done with it. The most challenging thing about the paper is the fact that there is so much history to write about and trying to make sure that I put the right things in the paper. At first I thought that writing 6-8 pages was going to be impossible, but I guess when I got going it was okay. The small outline that you provided for us was very helpful. At the end, I did find myself getting a little discouraged because I didn't feel like it was flowing together and I felt like I was summarizing instead of arguing. I guess I will find out when I get the paper back if I did the assignment right.

Blog #7

MIDTERM Paper

When writing this paper I found it really hard to pick and choose what information to include in my paper. I feel that if I would have included everything on my outline it would have taken up ten plus pages. So it was hard for me to condense everything because I felt like I wasn't going into enough detail on certain points to support my argument. All in all though, i feel like it was a good assignment and that everything i incorperated into this paper was a review of everything since day one of class. Alot of information went into this paper, and like i said above, i could have written the 6-8 page limit all about slavery and reconstruction alone. It was a tough assignment and took forever to finalize it all but it feels so good to be done now!!!

Midterm paper

Being finished with the midterm paper makes me feel so good! I worked really hard on it but I found some difficulties while writing it. I found it hard to cut down all of the information into 8 pages and condense it. There is so much information on each subject that I wrote on like slavery, reconstruction, migration, and social movements. It was a challenge to write minimal information on these topics but I spent time correcting and looking over it so I made sure there was not too much information on each subject. I enjoyed writing this paper because I like learning about a different culture than mine and the details that African Americans went through from the seventeenth century to the present day. I find it really interesting and it was a challenge to compile this information together but it was worth it because I learned a lot in this process!!

Midterm paper blog

The hardest part of writing this paper for me was starting it. When i started to write it i was lost. There is such a wide variety of things that African Americans have faced and i was unsure where to start and what to say. To be honest i thought 6 pages was a lot at first but as i started to write i realized there is so much to write about that 6 pages was easily obtainable. I had to make sure that i didnt begin to ramble about each topic and i got to the point as well

Midterm Paper

 I am so relieved that I finished my midterm paper! This assignment was challenging, but I'm very excited about how my paper turned out. The most challenging thing for me was just getting started. I am a huge procrastinator, so I starting doing an outline early to get all my thoughts out on paper. I also had trouble putting all my thoughts together because of all the information and time that I wanted to cover. I also agree with some of my classmates that it was very difficult to produce a good thesis. Overall, I learned more from writing my midterm paper then I thought I would, and it was a very positive experience. 

Professor Whaley Post: Midterm Due Thursday, March 5th! Plus Thursdays Activities

Of course, the midterm is due today!!! (in class, no emails or faxes--sorry!). I will collect midterms top of the hour, so make sure you arrive on time. We will discuss your blogs, and then we will discuss two of the autobiographies we did not get to that were assigned for Tuesday (Amira Baraka and Malcolm X).

In class discussion pieces:

"Ka'Ba" by Amiri Baraka

A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and Black people
call across or scream across or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will.

Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air.

We are beautiful people
With African imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants
with African eyes, and noses, and arms
tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.

We have been captured,
and we labor to make our getaway, into
the ancient image; into a new

Correspondence with ourselves
and our Black family. We need magic
now we need the spells, to raise up
return, destroy,and create. What will be

the sacred word?

Baraka Discussion:

In the above poem, what connection does Baraka make between history and identity? Now that you have read the Jay David book, can you make comparisons and connections between the poem's meaning and the "work" of autobiography?

Malcolm X Clips:

1. This first clip discusses X's childhood, issues of objectivity, the shaping of religion on his world-view, and what he describes as the "race problem." In the clip, the discussants question his objectivity. Can African Americans be objective concerning issues of race? At the end he quotes JFK. What would Kennedy or X say is the problem of the 21st century and why? Would they see things similarly? Why/why not?



2. This second clip represents X's transformation after leaving and denouncing the Nation of Islam. Many issues brought up in this clip exist today, such as red lining districts and segregation (New York City). X ends by saying as long as one African American person does not have freedom/respect, that he is not truly free. What does he mean by this? In other words, why do you think he makes the distinction between individual and group success? Does such an idea about freedom seem naive in contemporary times? Do his comments assume a perpetual victimhood status? Should individuals advocate based on group status? Is individual freedom and respect a more achievable and/or desirable goal? Why/why not?

Midterm Paper Blog 6

This paper was a challenge and I am happy to be finished, and feel good about what I have put together.

To start I created a thesis and introduction, then talked with you about my ideas, in which you gave me a very helpful outline of a better way to organize my ideas. I then used this structure to work through each moment, and assemble my argument. I think I did a good job of putting together facts, ideas, and experiences to get my point across.

I think I did a great job putting it all together, and there can always be a better way to explain, but within the circumstances I did the best I could do.

Thank you for helping with an outline, and I look forward to knowing how I did, and I hope my ideas and thoughts come together how I see them.

Midterm Response

I found this paper to be one of the most difficult ones I have been assigned. Purely for the reason that my knowledge about the subject going into the class was very little. Therefore I felt that I was needing to site a lot because the course material is where my knowledge about the subject has come from. I also had trouble figuring out my thesis. I just felt that I couldn't get a detailed enough one to cover the topic question.

The most challenging part of my writing process lay in crafting a broad enough thesis to encompass the aspects of the question. Furthermore, sifting through all of the course material in order to find proper evidence to back up my claims proved to be quite the challenge. However, these challenges also proved to be rewarding because it forced me to truly apply myself in a fashion I had never done before.

Response on Midterm Paper

Before I started this midterm paper I was overwhelmed on which historical things in the 4 centuries of African American Culture I was going to talk about and focus in on. I decided to choose the ones that made a difference to many's lifes and beliefs. I also chose moments that seemed to redefine human character as well as show the reality of hatred and racism that was present in America. While writing about these as well as the ways African Americans resisted them, it gave me a deeper understanding of how all these things were connected and the history behind each one. I felt that the paper assignment was clear and the way to set it up, by historical periods, really made writing it alot easier. Although I did enjoy writing it, I am glad to be done!!! I feel like I learned alot through analyzing each of these periods and really interpreting how African Americans understood many of the things going on around them at those specific times. I gained a deeper understanding of the culture behind the history, and how both can intertwine and influence one another.

Blog #7

In writing my midterm I found it quite difficult to compose all of my thoughts and supporting evidence into 8 pages. While this may seem like gloating, I simply mean to say that I wanted a neat and precise paper without being too verbose. The issue with this is that there were so many potential points of discussion/analysis that could be covered for each potential historical era and response.
This was a blessing and a curse as in looking over all of the material I was able to 1. Review and gain some new perspectives on all of the material and 2. Really organize and define each era with its points of oppression and resistance and 3. Watch the steps in the development of an African American culture. I find myself very well versed in the subject matter until now and my grasp on the course and the material has never been firmer. Yay for midterm papers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midterm Paper Response

I found this paper assignment to be one of the most challenging papers that I have ever been asked to write. The only thing that I found that I was good at was organizing the paper and the different eras that I was going to discuss. It was extremely hard to fit so much history (pretty much the entire history of Africans living in America) into one paper. It was hard for me to decide on what was important to make sure that I included and what details or information were not as important that I could kinda skip over. I also found it very hard to choose what specific events and people that I was going to included in my analysis of each era, because every event that occured helped to shape history in some way. I did find that outline that Professor Whaley made us very helpful in organizing my thoughts a little more. I also think that after completing this paper I have a better understanding of African American history than I did before and I think that it will be easier for me to remember some of this new information on quizzes and exams. So that aspect of the paper was rewarding as well as just finishing the paper in its entirety. I am not the best at conveying my thoughts especially when it involves interpreting and citing a lot of history so this paper was certainly a big challenge for me. However, hopefully, future papers that I may be assigned that are similar to this one will be a little easier for me to complete.

-Sarah Pergine

Week 7 Writing the midterm

I found it very challenging to write the midterm paper. Trying to organize 400 years of history and deciding which forms of resistance to write about was the most difficult. I only had room in my paper to use 1-2 responses for each historical period to the types of oppression black Americans survived. I don't know if I have written about the most important ones, but I chose the responses that spoke the most to me of human strength and perseverence. I really enjoyed reading the Painter book. I have had some African-American history before, such as about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. But this book gave a very complete picture of the history. Which is why I found it harder than I thought it would be to only write 8 pages. The most rewarding part was finishing it(!) and gaining a clearer understanding, not only how black resistance affected African American culture, but also American culture for all.

Midterm paper

I found several things challenging about writing the midterm paper.  Mostly, I've struggled to find a way to add all the information I think is necessary or beneficial to my argument in 8 pages.  It's tough to cover 4 centuries in 8 pages.  I could almost write an 8 page paper just on the resistance to oppression through social movements.  I also had a difficult time working art into my paper.  I'm not used to critically analyzing literature or using it to support an argument.  This paper did show me, however, that I have learned a considerable amount in this course thus far.  It was neat to be pushed to look at the art I wrote about from a different perspective and actually look for meaning in it; especially considering I'm used to just identifying whether a picture is "pretty" or not.  All in all, the paper has helped pushed me in a direction academically that I haven't experienced in a few years since I'm in a scientific field.