Arab American Presentations

I found the Arab American presentations interesting. It seems throughout this class that many times when racism is being addressed the minority groups do more to try and stop it, which seems backwards. In the presentations the Arab American singers were advocating peace and multiculturalism while in the white culture they advocate white superiority in the media.

Even in cartoons this is the case! Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny both portrayed Arab Americans in a negative light. This surprised me. I was told in highschool history courses that Arab Americans teach their kids about violence when they are in school and are taught to grow up to defend their faith even if that results in violence. As we learned through the presentations though this is only in extreme cases. Most Muslims are peaceful. There are only a few that are violent, just like there are some white people that are violent. This once again reiterated to me the fact that so often there are misconceptions about minorities, and that as Loewen talks about over and over in his book history really does leave us ignorant of how the world really is.

The Dream Act- Extra Credit

The club Latino Student Union last week held an event named The Dream Act. This event was held after one of the seniors here at Whitworth had his story published in the Whitworthian. In his article Undocumented not Un-american. In his article he tells his story and lets us know why he is different from a lot of people here on campus. In the event we got a bigger insight of this. The Dream Act would allow undocumented students to apply for residency, if and only they were brought here at a young age and finished high school and is planning to attend a four or two year college. The process for this would take about six years. At the presentation we had a couple of guest speaker including two undocumented sisters who go to Eastern Washington university. They both told us their story. They told us that they were only five and three years old when they came to this country. They also told us about the different racial things people have told them. One of them mentioned "I'm sorry, but I did not chose to be brown, I did not chose to be this skin color". They told us thoughout their life they have been judged because of their race they always got stereotypical comments. She said that many people thought that only thing she ate were tacos and burritos. This brings me to point number three in Critical Theory: Race is social and not biological construction. As Americans we all do this. We tend to think that certain races do certain things.

Another of the speakers was Luis, the author of the article. He shared with us his struggles. He mentioned that he indeed will graduate from Whitworth but most likely will not be able to use his degree. The only thing he will be able to do is work at Mc Donalds or other low paying jobs. If the Dream Act does not get passed again he will not have a shot at completing the American dream. Everyday Luis lives with fear because he knows that in any minute or second he can be deported and all his hard work will be thrown out the window.

Ray- Extra Credit

I would have to say that the film Ray has been one of the best movies I have see. It all begins with Ray as a child in a poor neighborhood. Many things happen throughout his childhood. Many of them were tragic. One of them was when his brother dies from drowning. Ray never seemed to forget about this and he felt like he was responsible for the death of his brother. Another tragic thing thing that happen was the loss of his vision. His mom played a big role in his life. She made sure he independent. She many times repeated that she did not want him to be a cripple.

As we continue throughout the film, Ray travels to different places and soon is discovered. I really respect him for sticking to his roots when it came to racism. He was going to have a concert in Georgia but decided not to have it because of segregation rules. Because of this he was banned from Georgia. Many people during this era thought that segregation was good because they thought that blacks should not be in the same section as whites. They clearly missed point five of critical theory; Every individual has a complex and compound identity.Ray soon became a big sensation. Many people were amazed by the fact that he was blind and was an amazing pianist. As many artists do, he soon became a drug addict and a womanizer. He started to use drugs regularly and started to cheat on his wife. Soon Ray was found with drugs and was arrested. This soon became an issue. He did not think it was an issue because he was making great music and being very successful. He later had to go to rehab. Rehab was very difficult for him until one day he got a vision from his mother. His mother told him to get up and do it allover again and to stop messing up. After that Ray came out of rehab and never touched drugs again. In the end Ray is still a big icon for all Americans.

Ray - Extra Credit

Ray Charles lived through a lot. The film Ray (2004) makes that very clear. Loss defines most of his story. First, he loses his brother, then his eyesight, his mother, his girlfriend, his health, and almost his marriage. Only after counseling and rehab is Ray finally able to get back in control of his life and live it fully for the first time. In the middle of all of the sorrows and trials, Ray Charles launches into the national spotlight with a music career that he never dreamed was possible. One defining moment in Ray's career comes when he is about to play at a concert in Georgia, a concert that is for blacks only. A man in the crowd begins talking to Ray as he makes his way to the door of the building and convinces Ray not to perform. After this incident and Georgia officially closes its doors to Ray Charles and his band, Milt Shaw (Ray's agent from the record company) is furious and wants Ray to win Georgia back. Ray says that he can't do it, that it is not acceptable for him to play at a segregated concert. Shaw's frustration demonstrates the second tenet of Critical Race Theory: "Because of materialistic determinism, certain groups in society have no incentive to eradicate racism." Concerned only with record sales, discrimination did not phase Shaw when booking Ray's concerts. Ray himself had little incentive to stand up against Jim Crowe concerts because he was financially stable and famous. It took one of his own people pleading for support before Ray would finally recognize the racism that he was indirectly promoting. Another very powerful moment of the film showed a dream Ray had while in the rehab center. Both his mother and his brother were in the dream and they were all back at the house where he grew up. Ray's mother asks him why he let himself become a cripple. She is not referring to his eyesight, but his addiction to heroin. Then Ray's little brother George said, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault." The forgiveness and relief in this moment was extremely powerful. Tenet five of Critical Race Theory states, "Every individual has a complex and compound identity." Ray might have been a drug addict and a womanizer, but he was also a broken child who never learned to forgive himself for what happened. Understanding his own story led to the eventually reunion with his wife and children after kicking his heroin habits. Stories are the key to all kinds of healing. Knowing someone else's story removes the possibility of stereotyping and diminishes the power of racism.

Ray- Extra Credit

Ray was a very inspirational film. Ray witnessed his younger brother's death and went blind at the age of seven. He was encouraged and inspired by his mother to make his way in the world. He finally found that he was actually very talented at playing the piano, even though he was blind. Ray began touring and eventually thousands of people around the world knew about him. He has taken various forms of popular music and changed them in ways that people loved. He was able to overcome the racism and cruel prejudices against the blind. He fought segregation in the clubs that he performed in and tried to diminish the stereotypes against people of color and the blind. Even though Ray struggled throughout his life with things such as drugs, but he was able to influence and change the lives of those who heard his music.

The story of Ray Charles reminded me of the first tenet of the Critical Race Theory. This tenet states that race is ordinary and involves white-over-color ascendancy. Ray was often looked down upon and discriminated against because of his race, but he was able to overcome these issues with his hard work and determination to make something of himself. He used his music to help others see that these could change and did not always have to be like they were. Also, he tried to over the white-over-color ascendancy. He wanted others to know that whites should not be so high above everyone else just because they are white. Ray was able to bring people together and change how they thought about things.

People often thought that Ray couldn't amount to any thing because he was black, but showed that his race does not affect his talent. Within Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen declares "Almost no genre of our popular culture goes untouched by race"(136). This means that race is a major factor in our culture that will prevail above things that truly matter, like talent or effort. Because Ray is of color, he has to deal with a variety of issues. Even if he wanted to be a soccer player, he would still have to overcome obstacles because of his race.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child – Extra Credit

The Jean-Michel Basquiat documentary was fantastic! The film really captures Basquiat’s personality. There are clips that his friend filmed where you get to see him just being himself in a casual setting. He seemed to have a very fun-loving, chill, and innocent personality; yet he was a genius.

Basquiat was first noticed for his and a friend’s SAMO artwork on the streets. (At this point Basquiat was homeless, he had nothing.) After moving on from SAMO work, Diego Cortez helped him get entered in his first show. It was called the PS1 show, "I was just tired of seeing white walls with white people with white wine,” Cortez said. This show propelled Basquiat to the top of emerging artists.

The previous quote from Cortez highlights the third tenet of CRT, that race is a social not biological construct. Cortez recognized that the world only honored white people’s artwork as high class. He wanted to give other’s a chance. Although this show helped Basquiat immensely, his ethnicity still held the world back from recognizing him as they otherwise would have. Even when he became extremely famous. For example, some museums wouldn’t even accept his art if it was donated.

At one point, “a young graffiti artist, 25 yr old Michel Stewart, was arrested for scrawling on the wall of a subway station at three in the morning.” “He was beaten to death by five white police officers.” This news really affected Basquiat, because he knew it could have been him. “To go from being in a gallery where everyone knows you and wants to get with you, to walking down the street where everyone sees you as a bummy looking black guy.. it's a mind fogger.” To go from being treated with such high respect for his artwork, when people knew who he was, to being treated with racism when he was just an anonymous guy on the street was really hard for Basquiat. I imagine this experience would help one understand to the extreme how racist our country is.

Another example of the world’s view of Basquiat relates to Loewen. Loewen defines 'primitive' as having “only a crude understanding of the planet they live on, until aided by a forward-thinking European” (49). As America defined the Native American culture as ‘primitive,’ also an Interviewer seems to define Basquiat as such. Basquiat is not stupid though, he knows what this definition means, and humerously calls the interviewer on it, making the interviewer seem rather silly:

Interviewer: And you’re seen as some sort of primal expressionism, it that?
Basquiat: [Laughing].. Like an ape?
Interviewer: Well.. lets
Basquiat: A primate?
Interviewer: Well I don't know.. is that.. is
Basquiat: You said it, I don't know, you said it.
Iterviewer: Well, um.. y'er..

“Jean-Michel wasn't different. He was an artist just like most of the people at those scenes. But color makes you feel different. And you know people are looking at you a certain way. And all the comments you read about him had all that [primitive/primal] kind of encoded language in them, which never would have happened to a white guy.” Racism is ordinary. Famous or not, minority groups experience it on a regular basis. An example of this comes from a Newspaper clipping: “Basquiat is likened to the wild boy raised by wolves, corralled into Annina's basement and given nice clean canvases to work on instead of anonymous walls. A child of the streets gawked at...." And then again, when Basquiat is asked, "[Do] you like to be called The Black Picasso?” “Not so much,” he says, “It's flattering, but I think it is also demeaning."

At age 27 Basquiat died, leaving over 1,000 paintings and 1,000 drawings. “He is now recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and exhibits in museums all over the world.”

The Reluctant Fundamentalist & Arab-American Presentations

The end of The Reluctant Fundamentalist frustrated me. I don't like not knowing for sure what happened. Did Changez die? Was he even a trustworthy narrator in the first place? The book was a surprise for me and something different than I had ever read before. It made me try to see just a little bit from the perspective of someone facing the ugly side of what America can stand for. I think that even though this was not my favorite Lit. book ever, more people should read Hamid's novel. It could start the discussion that needs to happen more often here in America.

The Arab-American presentations today were particularly enjoyable for me. I thought Claire and Andrea's teaching ideas presentation was very thorough and informative. I had not really realized how similar some Christian and Islamic beliefs and values are. I also really appreciated the interview Andrea did and how that applied so directly to our community. Sometimes, I think what we discuss in class is so generalized to our country that it never gets personal, but here is a 22 year old man living HERE in our community. Like the Loewen quote that was used multiple times today, it's the emotion that makes what we learn stick. My favorite part of the presentations was seeing, hearing and learning about musician, Kareem Salama. I was surprised at how much I genuinely enjoyed his music. I really do want to get some of his songs to put on my iPod. I seriously enjoy his style and message. I think what he and other artists are doing multiculturally is so cool. Taking such talent and pairing it with an emotional message could really make some people think and consider what others go through.