Identity, Race, and Privilege

  The books that I read were, Incognegro and Monster. Both of these books have had similar impact on me but in different ways. In Monster the main character is on trial for a murder but is he being judged because he was an accomplice or is it because he is a young black boy at the right place at the wrong time, with the wrong people. In the book Incognegro Zane's brother Pinchy is on trial for killing a white women even though the sheriff knew that he was innocent. Now power is "possession of controlling influence." In both of these books the characters who are white have the power. They can influence the people around them into thinking that a black man is guilty of a crime that he did not commit. This power can be used for good but it was often used for the worst, especially down south.
  In the book Incognegro we see the influence that power has on all the characters as well as what kinds of privilege are offered to those who are thought to be white. The sheriff and the man who has the one eye are perfect examples of power. All sheriff had to do was arrest Pinchy and tell the mob that he killed a white women and everything was set in motion. The hatred that was already there was sparked and everyone in that town was ready to kill. All the man with the one eye had to do was bring Carl out to a mob and they were all ready to hang him. It doesn't take much effort to influence someone who already has their mind set on something. In this case the Hatred that they share for African American people.
  One thing that I did not know before I read the book Incognegro is that there was a such thing as "passing." I especially didn't know that there were different forms of passing. The obvious were Carl and Zane. Because their skin was so light they were able to pass a white. Carl was offered a place to spend the night, he was invited to parties, and he was treated like a guest of honor. I had no idea that African American who had lighter skin were able to have privileges that were only offered to white people.

The manipulation of Innocence

   We were assigned to watch two videos for this Unit. One of these videos was called " A Class Divided," and "Mirrors of Privilege." In this video a teacher test the innocece of her third grade class by seperating the class by eye color. One day the blue eyed kids or on top of the ladder, and on the second day the brown eyed kids or placed on top of the class. What suprised her the most was the fact that these third graders turned against each other in a matter of 15 minutes. This just shows how easy it is to make someone believe what you want them to. If it only took these children 15 minutes to believe that one eye color was more dominate than the other how long did it take Hitler to convince the Nazi of his beliefs?
  The next video, " Mirrors of Privilege," tells of the white privilege and a guilt that seems to be shared by all the people who speak in the video. I don't think that this guilt is a guilt of being white. I feel like it is more of a guilt that is directed towards the helplessness of not doing anything when you know that you should. For example the girl that her teacher kept telling her to say the word french fries as I think it was "flench flies." She knew that what her teacher was doing was wrong but she just couldn't seem to speak up and make it stop. It's not a guilt of their skin color becasue they can't help the color of their skin, but more of wanting to help and not knowing how to or being fearful of what the reactions will be.
  Each of these videos are similar in topic but each tells you of a different story.

Prisoner on the Hell Planet (the comis within the comic)

        The comic "Hell Planet" really took me by surprise. The first thing that I noticed was that the characters were human whereas in the comic the characters are animals. The story that   behind the novel revolves around Artie's mothers suicide. The comic seems to be illustrating a hidden emotion that Artie does not show throughout the novel comic. In the "Hell Planet" I felt like Artie was telling the readers that he feels as though it was his fault that his mother committed suicide. Also in one of the panels when he says  "my fathers friends offered me hostility mixed with their condolences." I couldn't really understand if this was something that had actually happened or if it was just something that came with the sadness and resentment. But the guilt can be  easily seen close to the end when he remembers the time when his mother came into the room and asked him if he still loved her and he like totally blew her off.

  Hi! My name is Mary. I am a freshman at Shippensburg University. I am currently undeclared but I do have in interest in Psychology. I didn't choose this class but I think that I will enjoy it just because I love books. The last book that I read was the Twilight Saga: Eclipse. In this class I hope to learn how to share my opinions and thoughts about the books that I am reading.

  Cultural Diversity is  the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. I think that there is still a lot of Cultural Diversity that exist between people. These differences include language, the way someone dresses and their traditions. For example many cultures may value eating dinner around the table but today's economy makes it difficult because everyone is working and going their separate ways.  These values and differences are what keep the world interesting.