Human Interest

Additionally, here is a list of 13 honest books about slavery that young people should actually read.  

Twain’s most devastating piece of satire: “The United States of Lyncherdom.” "Let us import American missionaries from China, and send them into the lynching field." 

As with much of Twain’s writing, the tone of “The United States of Lyncherdom” is facetious, but its substance dead serious. After reading the horrific account of a 1901 lynching in Missouri, Twain sat down at his typewriter and proposed a novel solution to America’s most ghastly form of mob justice: encouraging Christian missionaries to spread “civilization” to the American South.

Bliss wrote him back, as Twain explained to a friend, to say that if they publish that book, he wouldn’t have even half a friend left in the South.

Mark Twainwasextremely sensitive about risking all that he had earned, the fame and the popularity and the financial success, by entertaining his audience. So he was always worried that he could lose all of that very quickly if he said something that would offend rather than entertain that audience. What he said was, ‘I have told the truth too plainly in that piece. And that’s something no man can afford to do until I am dead.’”

 Up to me, race and colour don`t matter. Most important is the personality. America have now a black President. Is it better??

A history & language lesson.

Admittedly, I've got a thing for monuments in the cultural landscape.  This is a very nice article for a historical geographer on how memory and heritage are enshrined in the landscape; this process politicizes history in ways that shape the national narrative, and that shapes how we think in past.   Using historical geography to understand the debates in the news?  No way!!  Here James Loewen writes in the Washington Post on the topic for a general audience. 

A news reporter from the UK congratulates one twin for turning out lighter than her sister, who has black skin. The parents of the twins are mix-gendered, (one of them is black and one of them is white), so one of the twins got her looks from her mom and other one got her looks from her dad.

I found the video very racist! I don't know what the news reporter was thinking at all! But, I think that it is really cool that they are twins, and are different genders.

The idea that these 2 girls are related just shows that race shouldn't have anything to do with who we are as people. We learned about equality in many units and I am amazed that something like this has even happened. 

Ethnicity - Ethnicity is a socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience. The girls shown in the pictures came from the same mother, and have the same father, but of course they are fraternal twins. Most people would categorize the red headed girl as white, and the brunette as black or African American, both with completely different backgrounds, and it never crossing their minds that these girls could be related at all. Due to society's categorizing of skin color, people have grown to believe wrong about ethnicity. The color of one's skin has nothing to do with a person's family history or heritage. These twins prove that society is racist when it comes to assuming the ethnicity of a person.

Interesting and different way to view MLK.

www.bharatemployment.com

Race is both an omnipresent part of culture and surprisingly elusive.  "What is race?" might seem like an obvious question with concrete answers, but many see race as a socially constructed concept.  Even if it is socially constructed, how it is thought of has legal ramifications (as shown in the case regarding dreadlocks).  This is a good article that could start students asking the question "What is race?" and realize that it might be a hard question to answer.  

Tags: culture, race.

All I have to say is....wow. 

How about "cross-polination" and "cross-fertilization" in cultures?

unit 3

Unit 3

Unit 7

Unit 7: Cities and Urban Land Use

This article is about Sandtown, Baltimore and its shift into a disamenity sector. It explains how this neighborhood, mainly housed by blacks, had a high percentage of vacant houses. The article says that this neighborhood is overrun with poverty, war on drugs and gangs and has the more residents in jail than any other neighborhood. This shows the changing demographics of the city of Baltimore.

This relates to unit 7 because it covers the topic of disamenity sectors and changing demographics. It shows reasons for the high levels of poverty and abandoned housing. It also shows the racial spatial distribution of the neighborhood and its correlation to housing and development.  

This article left me heart broken. The African American community in Baltimore is stuck in a deep poverty cycle, and it cannot seem to escape its impoverished past. Even now, the poverty in the area seems to just be getting worse. The problems of income disparity lead to more problems than just economic; they lead to social and political problems. Social unrest and injustice occurs as a result of the modern white flight. This article arose as a result of the death of Freddie Gray, whose death demonstrates a significant social issue that needs to be addressed: police brutality and the criminal targeting of the African American community. His death stems from the tremendously amounts of disparity in the city. Promoting investment in the inner city would definitely help alleviate the poverty in the area. The problem is getting people to invest.

APHG- HW Option 3

a book about him