My Experiences with Diigo

This weekend, we were assigned to sign up for a Diigo account and try it out and take some notes. The sign up process was simple, however, I was a bit irked that I had to install an extension into my browser to be able to use it--a minor inconvenience, but worth mentioning. The site itself is well-designed and easy to navigate and use. To test out Diigo, I took notes on an article about Frederick Jackson Turner. I found that there are four different colors that one can use to highlight things, so I decided to use yellow for general note-taking and blue for words I do not know the meaning of. I find the sticky note feature particularly useful for attaching definitions to such words as I encounter them. All in all, I like Diigo so far.

--Wald der Haarig

Impressions of Impressions of an Indian Childhood

"Impressions of an Indian Childhood" is a work by a Native American woman named Zitkala-Sa. It contains several anecdotes from the author's childhood that stood out particularly in her mind. The first part of the piece is comprised of a description of the author's mother. As a child, Zitkala-Sa help her mother in the highest esteem. She had absolute respect for the women, and loved her immensely. Zitkala-Sa's mother was a kind and patient woman who was very respected in her community, but she had a deep sadness because of the "palefaces" who invaded her village and killed her family. From a young age, Zitkala-Sa is taught to respect all living things, yet is infused with a deep hatred of the palefaces by her mother. She loves to hear stories from the village elders when they all come to eat at her home, and she reminisces about how the village women would practice beadwork and her education in that discipline. The last story in the work is about Zitkala-Sa leaving her mother and going east with the palefaces. She is enticed by stories of apples and beautiful land, and these tales combined with the fact that her brother had previously left with the palefaces and returned unharmed drives her to beg her mother to let her go. Zitkala-Sa's mother is very reluctant to release her daughter, but finally concedes. The recountal ends with Zitkala-Sa watching her mother fade into the distance and being filled with regret.

--Wald der Indianisch

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was an open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. to his fellow clergymen while he was in a Birmingham jail cell. King had been imprisoned there because of his nonviolence protests against segregation in Alabama. In his letter, King responds to criticism he has received because of his law-breaking. He makes very clear his belief that laws should only be upheld if they are just in accordance with the law of God. King asserts that laws demanding segregation can never be just because they are used by a majority to harm and oppress a minority that has no power to change the laws. King also expresses deep disappointment in the White moderate: any White citizen who claims to support the Blacks ideologically, but fails to do anything to actually help them. He states that the greatest danger to justice is not evil men doing evil things, but rather good men doing nothing. This disappointment is also extended to churches in the south, particularly "do nothing" White clergymen. King expected to be supported in his pacifistic fight for freedom by his Christian brothers, regardless of race, but he was sorely disappointed. King even goes on to admonish organized Christian religion for its promotion of the status quo, regardless of whether or not present conditions are just or unjust. He expresses this disapproving sentiment in my favorite quote from the work: "In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society." The "those days" he is referring to is the time when the Christian church was much stronger and had a great deal more influence on the actions and principles of the communities in and around it. Unfortunately, according to Dr. King, the Church has lost this noble position of a moral beacon, and instead sunk to go with the flow of the world.

--Wald der Gebildet

Views on Black Suffrage and the Racism of the Wealthy

Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and Frederick Douglass had varying views on the issue of Blacks' suffrage. At one end of the spectrum was Washington, who believed that Blacks should not protest for or even actively try to get equal civil rights or suffrage. He believed that they should just work hard and hope that eventually Whites would recognize them as equals. Frederick Douglass held views that were antipodal to Washington. He believed that Blacks deserved to get all of their rights immediately. He adamantly declared that if the Negro could be tolerated by the White man as a slave, then he could be tolerated as a free man. W. E. B. DuBois fell somewhere in the middle between Washington and Douglass. He disagreed with Washington's position on how Blacks should get their rights, but to a less extreme degree than Douglass. DuBois was more specific and intellectually logical about his disagreement with Washington, pointing out discrepancies in Washington's plan and referring to them as a "triple paradox."
As for the idea that racism was promoted by the upper classes in order to increase their wealth, I believe that this situation could be possible, but I do not think that it was a widespread, well-organized practice among the wealthy. It seem a bit conspiratorial to claim that the entire upper class in America was (or even still is) working together to "keep the Black man down" simply to amass some sort of profit from doing so. I do however, believe that wealthy people were/are generally more prejudiced than poorer people, but I think these prejudices are more directed towards anyone in a lower social standing than towards one particular race.

--Wald der Reich

The Frederick Douglass Impersonator

In class today, we watched a video of a Frederick Douglass impersonator, named Michael E. Crutche. He was performing a reenactment of one of Douglass's speeches. In this speech, he argued for the necessity of equality in civil rights and suffrage for Blacks. He also complained about the unfair charges levied against the Black community. In particular, he indignantly denied the accusation that Black men cannot be trusted around White women. He asserted that this slanderous charge had absolutely no basis in fact, and that is was extraordinarily dangerous to the reputation of the Black community.

--Wald der Obdachlos

W. E. B. DuBois and the Triple Paradox

W. E. B. DuBois wrote a criticism of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise in his collection Souls of Black Folk. Most of his criticism was based around DuBois's belief that a triple paradox existed within Washington's ideas. According to to DuBois, the triple paradox was as follows: First of all, Washington encourages Black merchants and artisans to become affluent landowners, yet this is impossible without them having the right to vote. Secondly, Washington wants the Negro race to have dignity and respect, but at the same time, he encourages them to act socially inferior to other races. Finally, he suggests that Blacks only worry about getting a basic education and don't concern themselves with college and higher learning, and yet the teachers trained in Negro colleges are necessary for society to function.

--Wald der Chinesisch

Naturalism Presentations: Day 2

Today in class, the groups that did not get a chance to give their Naturalism projects yesterday presented them today. After watching two other groups, Georgina and I gave our report. I spoke mainly during the first half of the presentation. I discussed the definition of Naturalism according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), the significance of Naturalism as a philosophy, Darwin's influence on the development of Naturalism, and how Naturalism is connected to the Realist literary movement. I also spoke specifically about Jack London, and analyzed his short story, "To Build a Fire," and how it exhibited features of Naturalism and Realism. Georgina talked about Émile Zola, George Becker, and the Gilded Age. Our presentation went well.

--Wald der Begeistert

Naturalism Presentations: Day 1

Today we began presenting our naturalism projects. My group did not present, so I spent the duration of the class listening to other people's presentations. There were a few presentations that stood out in particular. First, Ryan's group emphasized naturalism's influence on and connection to atheism, a connection that had not explicitly occurred to me. They also discussed Stephen Crane's The Open Boat, which details the experiences of four men on a boat at sea. Apparently, three or all of them die by the end. Another presentation that I found particularly notable was the first one. As much as I would love to go on a multi-page tirade on the finer points of this... exceptional performance, I will simply say: lol.

--Wald der Geschmackvoll

The Return of Cook

At last, after what feels like many ages, our dear teacher Mr. Cook has returned. This comes as a great relief to most of us, many of whom believed that he had abandoned us forever. The reign of the mysterious Mrs. Jones has come to an end, and I imagine she will never be seen again. Today in class, we made our powerpoint for our naturalism presentation. Georgina and I divided up the speaking between us: I will primarily take the first part, and she will primarily take the second part. As a class, we discussed features of an oral presentation/powerpoint that improve the overall quality. One of those features was color, so we made sure to incorporate that into our slideshow. Based on our group number, we will probably not present tomorrow, but Wednesday.

--Wald der Komisch

The Second Day of the Substitute

Today, our class was once again left Cookless. Mrs. Jones substituted again. All in all, today and yesterday were remarkably similar. The course of my actions was as follows: First, Georgina and I went to the library and logged onto computers. Next, we pulled up information about naturalism and related material, and read that for the rest of the class. In particular, we read about the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a period of rapid economic and technological growth in the United States after the Civil War. It was named for the process of gilding objects with a superficial layer of gold, which was meant to make fun of the era's ostentatious self-admiration.

--Wald der Ruhig

The First Day of the Substitute

Today in class, we had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Jones, for Mr. Cook was not with us. Before today, I had never seen Mrs. Jones, and I am a bit curious where she came from. I am also curious as to where Mr. Cook was. By now, the inane, rambling nature of this blog entry is surely evident. This is a combination of two factors. First of all, it is currently very late at night, rendering me very tired and hardly capable of coherent though. Secondly, there is not a whole lot to talk about that took place in class under the substitute. We were basically left to our own devices to work on our naturalism presentations, which is what we did. To make up for the meagerness of this post I shall leave the reader with an unrelated, but nevertheless interesting fact: When going to battle, Indian kings would make their horses wear trunks. The other side's elephants would refuse to attack the horses thinking that the horses were baby elephants.

--Wald der Trübe