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Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Honors Book Blog #3
Claude Brown was born in Harlem, New York, in 1937. He spent his childhood "roaming the streets with junkies, whores, pimps, hustlers, the 'mean cats' and the numbers runner"(pg 33.) He was a bad kid, druggie, gangbanger and served plenty of jail sentences until 1953. After that he left Harlem, after seeing a lot of friends die in drug crime, and mode to Greenwich Village, earning a living as a watch repairman. He later enrolled in night school to earn a high school diploma, then went to Howard University where he wrote this book Manchild in the Promised Land. He is the truest example of a terrible childhood turning into complete success. Something I want to be looked as when I grow up.
This book was a lot more about how this life turned him into a good person that the story of him growing up. This is a try inspiration for me because I am trying to turn the life I was giving into something great, which is sup rising hard to to considering the stories of boys I have heard with similar lives to me. As you know, I grew up not just with no dad, but with 3 main father figures coming in and out of my life whenever they pleased. This was more of a challenge that just having no dad, I had to cope with the constant fear of change and unreliability of not knowing whether I would have a father there for me or not. In this book, Claude brown shows that no matter how hard your life is, you can always overcome adversity with a positive outcome.
This completely changed my perspective on this project. I though that writing about Harlem in the 1950s would be about hard gangbangers that fought until they died. That went to jail and waited for the day they could get out, meet back with their gang and continue killing. I am starting to realize that it isn't about that, although they put up with the life they live, and act as if it is the greatest—they all want to leave. Nobody wants there life, they don't want there life. They deep down inside wished they grew up normal and had the same opportunities as everybody else.
I am starting to realize that I want the same thing, I don't want the childhood I was given. I always wanted more, a father, a reliable mother, to have my sister living anywhere near me or even to be in contact with her. I never got that, and I, like the characters I have been reading about, a, extremely jealous of people that were able to have that life. Maybe it is that fact that that has made me, and these characters, act harder than we had to. Am I really even the person I have cut myself out to be? I think I need to work on the acceptance of the life I was given. I know that because the way I grew up I have strived for success, but was it for the wrong reason? Have I been striving for success just to reach the life I never had? What kind of motive is that?
I know this was a bit off topic, however this is how I am feeling right now and there is nothing else I could possibly write about. This project, these writings, are developing something inside of me I have never achieved at school before. They are making me question life as it is, which I think I need to have a rough grasp on before I enter college. So I guess I'd like to say thank you, for making this all possible.
This book was a lot more about how this life turned him into a good person that the story of him growing up. This is a try inspiration for me because I am trying to turn the life I was giving into something great, which is sup rising hard to to considering the stories of boys I have heard with similar lives to me. As you know, I grew up not just with no dad, but with 3 main father figures coming in and out of my life whenever they pleased. This was more of a challenge that just having no dad, I had to cope with the constant fear of change and unreliability of not knowing whether I would have a father there for me or not. In this book, Claude brown shows that no matter how hard your life is, you can always overcome adversity with a positive outcome.
This completely changed my perspective on this project. I though that writing about Harlem in the 1950s would be about hard gangbangers that fought until they died. That went to jail and waited for the day they could get out, meet back with their gang and continue killing. I am starting to realize that it isn't about that, although they put up with the life they live, and act as if it is the greatest—they all want to leave. Nobody wants there life, they don't want there life. They deep down inside wished they grew up normal and had the same opportunities as everybody else.
I am starting to realize that I want the same thing, I don't want the childhood I was given. I always wanted more, a father, a reliable mother, to have my sister living anywhere near me or even to be in contact with her. I never got that, and I, like the characters I have been reading about, a, extremely jealous of people that were able to have that life. Maybe it is that fact that that has made me, and these characters, act harder than we had to. Am I really even the person I have cut myself out to be? I think I need to work on the acceptance of the life I was given. I know that because the way I grew up I have strived for success, but was it for the wrong reason? Have I been striving for success just to reach the life I never had? What kind of motive is that?
I know this was a bit off topic, however this is how I am feeling right now and there is nothing else I could possibly write about. This project, these writings, are developing something inside of me I have never achieved at school before. They are making me question life as it is, which I think I need to have a rough grasp on before I enter college. So I guess I'd like to say thank you, for making this all possible.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Gangsters Of Harlem, Honors Blog #2
The Gangsters of Harlem is fantastic book about, guess what, the Gangsters of Harlem. It does a great job of going through al time periods of Harlem, New York, which helped a lot for the project I will be doing. The book started in the late 1890’s when Harlem was a primarily white neighborhood, all the way until the 1980’s when it was over two-thirds African American and the crack problem was considered an “epidemic” by the United States Government.
This novel covered many different gangsters, from all different time periods. Nicky Barnes, Frank Matthews, Frank Lucas, Dutch Shultz all being some of the familiar names. However, although it went into great detail about many gangsters, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
The biggest help this book was is that it made me think more about crime, not necessarily Harlem. Most of us are aware of the blood and guts that inevitably come along with crime, but few of us have a real idea of how crime actually affects a community. Our class has been about community all year, and the way crime affects it is second to none. Even with Harlem starting out as a safe area in the late 1890’s, as soon as a couple mobsters came in and the real estate market collapsed in 1900, the entire neighborhood changed. The entire placed turned into a war zone. A war zone with a downward spiral that lead to an epidemic.
I liked this book because now I know that 1950’s Harlem, my topic, didn’t just happen because of 1950’s Harlem. It started decades before that, it was built upon a generation of crime and poverty. It created a new generation of crime and poverty that I cannot wait to read into after this project.
This novel covered many different gangsters, from all different time periods. Nicky Barnes, Frank Matthews, Frank Lucas, Dutch Shultz all being some of the familiar names. However, although it went into great detail about many gangsters, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
The biggest help this book was is that it made me think more about crime, not necessarily Harlem. Most of us are aware of the blood and guts that inevitably come along with crime, but few of us have a real idea of how crime actually affects a community. Our class has been about community all year, and the way crime affects it is second to none. Even with Harlem starting out as a safe area in the late 1890’s, as soon as a couple mobsters came in and the real estate market collapsed in 1900, the entire neighborhood changed. The entire placed turned into a war zone. A war zone with a downward spiral that lead to an epidemic.
I liked this book because now I know that 1950’s Harlem, my topic, didn’t just happen because of 1950’s Harlem. It started decades before that, it was built upon a generation of crime and poverty. It created a new generation of crime and poverty that I cannot wait to read into after this project.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Response Paper 9.26
Our entire semester so far has included a lot of reading regarding race and community. Even the books I personally chose to read for honors have to do about race and community. These new readings by Natalie Molina spoke to me in a new way that I have yet to think about.
Most of the beginning of the article Caught Between Discourses of Disease, Health, and Nation talks about the immigration of certain races, which is a new topic to our class. It also mentioned that in the beginning of the 20th century races had a certain ranking the government gave them. This ranking depended on a lot of things such as, wealthiest, where the race primarily lived, and one that really struck me—the degree to which they resembled the English.
I know that it is a different time, but this thoroughly upsets me. However I had to hold back the immediate reaction of rage felt toward the government for ranking races based on how Caucasian they are, to realize where this came from.
White people have always been the “best” in the United States. Is that racist, yes. Is it the hard truth that many people won’t admit to themselves, yes as well. Why is this though my mind wonders? I have an idea that it could be because white people immigrated to the United States before anybody else. They immediately saw the darker skin of the Native Americans, and what did they do? Killed them and drove them away. Starting generations to come of whites feeling supremacy based on skin color. But what if darker skinned races had come to America first? Would whites still be on top of the food chain? Would Native Americans still be here? Unfortunately we never can answers these questions, but they can generate a rich thought in all of us.
Most of the beginning of the article Caught Between Discourses of Disease, Health, and Nation talks about the immigration of certain races, which is a new topic to our class. It also mentioned that in the beginning of the 20th century races had a certain ranking the government gave them. This ranking depended on a lot of things such as, wealthiest, where the race primarily lived, and one that really struck me—the degree to which they resembled the English.
I know that it is a different time, but this thoroughly upsets me. However I had to hold back the immediate reaction of rage felt toward the government for ranking races based on how Caucasian they are, to realize where this came from.
White people have always been the “best” in the United States. Is that racist, yes. Is it the hard truth that many people won’t admit to themselves, yes as well. Why is this though my mind wonders? I have an idea that it could be because white people immigrated to the United States before anybody else. They immediately saw the darker skin of the Native Americans, and what did they do? Killed them and drove them away. Starting generations to come of whites feeling supremacy based on skin color. But what if darker skinned races had come to America first? Would whites still be on top of the food chain? Would Native Americans still be here? Unfortunately we never can answers these questions, but they can generate a rich thought in all of us.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Down These Mean Streets, Honors Blog One
Harlem, New York. Circa 1950. Young Puerto Rican Piri Thomas is growing up in El Barrio—Spanish Harlem. A place where you’re either down to back up the friends on your block, or you’re down to leave. Piri grew up and was nurtured in El Barrio, and during this book it shows when he is telling the story of his life. From cutting out of the house at 3am when he was 12 years old, to getting out of prison when he was in his late 20s. This is a story that shows the highest level of community, respect, and consequences to negative actions.
Piri Thomas up in the “ghetto” of El Barrio, although with the conditions of the town as a whole everything could have been considered a “ghetto.” While growing up there he learned a lot about community, possibly not knowing it until later in his life when he needed to rely on people. He had his group of 10-15 friends, and although what they were doing together was highly illegal (things like robbing liquor stores, or smoking “pot sticks”), he became close with those friends and felt at home on his block of 104th street. A couple years later he moved into an Italian neighborhood. They like to ridicule him, calling him things like “spic” or “nigger.” After all, he was a dark skinned Puerto Rican, un moreno. Here he learned that the community he grew up in made him the strong-minded individual that he was. In his comfort zone he could thrive and stay out of trouble, or at least stay in friendly trouble. It taught him the lesson of making the right friends, and doing whatever you needed to do in order to keep them.
During the middle of the story, when he is 16 years old, Piri moves out of the house. Not by force, but by choice. His family moved to Long Island, a place where white people run the schools and streets. A place where he felt uncomfortable enough, to drop out of high school after sophomore year, and movie back to El Barrio in order to be with his amigos. This is where he ran into real trouble. He starting peddling drugs in order to get by, for not many places want to hire a 16-year-old high school drop out. After about a month of selling tecata, heroin, he became addicted. He reached out to his old friends, his old community, and asked for the help of getting off the drugs. They accepted his plead and helped him get off of the drugs, and back on his feet.
He struggled afterwards, eventually landing himself on a Naval ship for a couple of years, so he could travel south and get away to learn who he himself was. He always ended back to Harlem though, and when he was 21, he found himself back on the streets of El Barrio. He was looking for easy money, so he got involved with one of his old amigos and a couple of his friends. They started doing hold ups. At first just a couple hundred dollars from liquor stores and bars, split four ways. Then they went for the grand finale, a nightclub that was filled with over 200 people. When it all went wrong, he found himself with a bullet in his chest, facing 5-15 years in state prison for armed robbery and shooting a police officer.
In prison he really learned what happens when you make bad choices. Not only did he get himself in prison, but also when his parole was up after 5 years, he got himself another two years minimum added because of his behavior while in the state penitentiary. He thought he was done, he no longer had reason to live, nobody that wanted to see him on the outside. He nearly killed himself on drugs in prison, but he stuck through. He remembered his childhood, as long as he remained cool and thought about the outside, he could get out. 2 years later he was released on parole.
His return home was a sad one. He confronted old lovers, friends, and family. Only to see that they had all changed, along with is neighborhood as a whole. He was on his own now. However, he was okay with it, knowing that a new life of sanity and normal tendencies would be the best life. This is the true story of a man who learned from his mistakes, and came back from a hard upbringing and a rough life, to a successful man with the respect of a poor one.
This novel taught me a lot about Harlem in the 50’s. Starting with the fact that there wasn’t just Harlem, but Spanish Harlem as well. The streets were generally from the 100 block to the 130 block around Lexington ave. Robberies and crime was the life of a normal person growing up in Harlem, and an honest person was a rarity. I’m excited that this was just my first plunge into the world of 50’s Harlem, and I have a whole semester of opportunities and perspectives to learn more about it.
Piri Thomas up in the “ghetto” of El Barrio, although with the conditions of the town as a whole everything could have been considered a “ghetto.” While growing up there he learned a lot about community, possibly not knowing it until later in his life when he needed to rely on people. He had his group of 10-15 friends, and although what they were doing together was highly illegal (things like robbing liquor stores, or smoking “pot sticks”), he became close with those friends and felt at home on his block of 104th street. A couple years later he moved into an Italian neighborhood. They like to ridicule him, calling him things like “spic” or “nigger.” After all, he was a dark skinned Puerto Rican, un moreno. Here he learned that the community he grew up in made him the strong-minded individual that he was. In his comfort zone he could thrive and stay out of trouble, or at least stay in friendly trouble. It taught him the lesson of making the right friends, and doing whatever you needed to do in order to keep them.
During the middle of the story, when he is 16 years old, Piri moves out of the house. Not by force, but by choice. His family moved to Long Island, a place where white people run the schools and streets. A place where he felt uncomfortable enough, to drop out of high school after sophomore year, and movie back to El Barrio in order to be with his amigos. This is where he ran into real trouble. He starting peddling drugs in order to get by, for not many places want to hire a 16-year-old high school drop out. After about a month of selling tecata, heroin, he became addicted. He reached out to his old friends, his old community, and asked for the help of getting off the drugs. They accepted his plead and helped him get off of the drugs, and back on his feet.
He struggled afterwards, eventually landing himself on a Naval ship for a couple of years, so he could travel south and get away to learn who he himself was. He always ended back to Harlem though, and when he was 21, he found himself back on the streets of El Barrio. He was looking for easy money, so he got involved with one of his old amigos and a couple of his friends. They started doing hold ups. At first just a couple hundred dollars from liquor stores and bars, split four ways. Then they went for the grand finale, a nightclub that was filled with over 200 people. When it all went wrong, he found himself with a bullet in his chest, facing 5-15 years in state prison for armed robbery and shooting a police officer.
In prison he really learned what happens when you make bad choices. Not only did he get himself in prison, but also when his parole was up after 5 years, he got himself another two years minimum added because of his behavior while in the state penitentiary. He thought he was done, he no longer had reason to live, nobody that wanted to see him on the outside. He nearly killed himself on drugs in prison, but he stuck through. He remembered his childhood, as long as he remained cool and thought about the outside, he could get out. 2 years later he was released on parole.
His return home was a sad one. He confronted old lovers, friends, and family. Only to see that they had all changed, along with is neighborhood as a whole. He was on his own now. However, he was okay with it, knowing that a new life of sanity and normal tendencies would be the best life. This is the true story of a man who learned from his mistakes, and came back from a hard upbringing and a rough life, to a successful man with the respect of a poor one.
This novel taught me a lot about Harlem in the 50’s. Starting with the fact that there wasn’t just Harlem, but Spanish Harlem as well. The streets were generally from the 100 block to the 130 block around Lexington ave. Robberies and crime was the life of a normal person growing up in Harlem, and an honest person was a rarity. I’m excited that this was just my first plunge into the world of 50’s Harlem, and I have a whole semester of opportunities and perspectives to learn more about it.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Reading and Seminar Response
So far these past three weeks we have read many of the most influential short stories ever written. Or at least the most popular. There are thousands of different themes that people have created, usually revolving around segregation or fear. However, one theme I noticed that sure attracted my attention more that anything else was the theme of evolution. I feel as though just about every other theme ends up relating back to evolution, and that it always drops your mind off at the question of, where will we be in the future?
Think about the story of the Jim Crow laws. Wright was writing that story like everything was normal, or not that big of a deal. If that happened now it would be a terrible crime, because we have evolved out of that time period. Nearly every story was something bad happening, and we have evolved out of all of those things. However, take Harrison Bergeron for example. Everybody had mental and physical handicaps on them, if the world was like this, how would anybody evolve? Would we even have a need to evolve?
The reason I think so much about evolution is because it brings up so many different questions. It leaves me searching my mind for answers I know I do not have, yet. And most of the time you can only find them by waiting for society to evolve throughout your life. Think about where we are in today’s world, and think about where we were 50 years ago. It was a totally different time. Now think about where we will be in 50 years, who knows what fear we will have evolved out of by then
Think about the story of the Jim Crow laws. Wright was writing that story like everything was normal, or not that big of a deal. If that happened now it would be a terrible crime, because we have evolved out of that time period. Nearly every story was something bad happening, and we have evolved out of all of those things. However, take Harrison Bergeron for example. Everybody had mental and physical handicaps on them, if the world was like this, how would anybody evolve? Would we even have a need to evolve?
The reason I think so much about evolution is because it brings up so many different questions. It leaves me searching my mind for answers I know I do not have, yet. And most of the time you can only find them by waiting for society to evolve throughout your life. Think about where we are in today’s world, and think about where we were 50 years ago. It was a totally different time. Now think about where we will be in 50 years, who knows what fear we will have evolved out of by then
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