Similarity and Differences

A similarity and difference between How Bigger Was Born and Do the Right Thing are between Radio Raheem and Mookie. In How Bigger Was Born,  Richard Wright said, “If a Negro rebels against rule… his is lynched” (439). Radio Raheem rebelled against Sal by bringing his radio inside Sal’s Famous and not turning it off. Later, because Raheem wouldn’t turn his music off, Sal fought him and eventually the police came and physically hung Raheem by holding him up by his neck, with his feet off the ground, so he couldn’t breathe. Like Wright said in How Bigger Was Born Raheem rebelled against Sal’s rule and therefore was lynched. It seems that ultimately a black man is at a disadvantage in justice because Wright didn’t say that when all people rebel, they are hanged; he said when “negroes” rebel they are lynched. Black people lived in an unjust and unfair society. By throwing the garbage can at Sal’s Famous, Mookie demonstrated how he was trying to save Sal and his family because Sal’s family would have been mobbed and killed if the attention hadn’t been turned to their pizzeria. Mookie was one who was an example of a “so called leader” by Richard Wright. Mookie “went hand in hand with the powerful whites and helped to keep their groaning brothers in line, for that was the safest course of action” (439). Mookie didn’t rebel for the black people, he rebelled to save Sal’s families life. For Mookie the “safest course” of action was by throwing the garbage can and redirecting the mob’s attention. He wasn’t working for his fellow blacks, he was working for Sal. Therefore Mookie can’t be referred to as a leader for the blacks. A leader is one who acts, by rebelling, for their own race.  

Power- Document 2: A Delicate Balance

Each member should then read their assigned document(s) and do a post on their blog that summarizes the document(s) (what was it, who said or wrote it, what were the key ideas) and then answers one of the questions that follows the document (you can choose which question to respond to).

Carl Stokes wrote what he remembered from listening to the SCLC telling him that there were major problems for him from the Cleveland riots. Dr. King came down to Cleveland to help him to become mayor even though Stokes had already won. Stokes said to King talking about King coming to help Stokes, "We have got to win a political victory here. This is our chance to take over a power that is just unprecedented among black people. But I’m very concerned that if you come here you’re going to upset the balance we’ve created." In the end he had to tell King, who had come to Cleveland to take over the political party because of the riots, to leave beacuse King didnt know the city as well as Stokes did. Stokes had already almost won the mayor and he couldnt risk King changing the party to the unliking of the people.

What was Stokes’s concern about King’s presence in Cleveland? As a candidate? As a black person

who cared about civil rights? As an American?

Stokes was concerned that King would ruin the almost won mayor job in Cleveland because of popularity of King and change he would have brought. He thought King, because he didnt start the campaign and didnt grow up in Cleveland, wouldnt have enough knowledge of what was teh right decision to act on the people to get votes. He thought Kings views were a little different than what would have succeeded in Cleveland and he would disrupt success.

Power- Document 1: How to Get Elected By White People

The document was excerpts from Carl Stokes', a black politician running for Cleveland Mayor, memoir, Promises of Power: A Political Autobiography. The excerpts reflected on his rise to power. Key ideas are: "people, acting together, are power", Stokes was a lawyer who put all of his money into his campaign, "there is no more effective political force in teh black community than the church", Stokes was involved as much as possible in the community, he used his political power as an "alien" or minority to gain power, and he made his campain a copy of the campaign model of the italians of talking differently to each ethnic group of people so each group would think that the politician was in it for them and a melting pot for everyone else.

 In what ways did Stokes’s election represent a milestone for black power? What do you think his

1.

election meant for black citizens?

Since he was the first black mayor that was not only the first black mayor, but was a black mayor voted for by a majority of white people, he became the bridge of trust between whites trusting blacks. The election for black citizens meant that they would start to become more fairly treated but most importantly more fairly represented.

Beloved Response

 After you complete your reading for today, we'd like you write your journal entry for chapter 9 as a blog post.  The focus of it revolves about the issue of Memory, Rememory, and the Power of the Past - what is the novel saying about these topics at this point?  What are the challenges and issues that arise when the past is either raised or specifically avoided?  When is it embraced - when is it hidden - why?

Throughout chapter 9 Sethe revisits her past of Baby Sugg's speech because the "words whispering in the keeping room were too little." She decided to visit the clearing where Baby Suggs had last given her preach and decided to sit down and remember the speach along with the remembrance of her husband. She wanted to find out more information of where her husband was and why he left her when Sethe thought, "get a clue from her husband's dead mother as to what she should do with her sword and shield now." Sethe had consistently been thinking about Halle and if she should marry Paul D. and before she could marry Paul D. she had to find out why Halle had left her. In the end she decided that even though Halle had left because of the "iron in his mouth"she had to move on. She moved on to Paul D. because of "trust and rememory." In loving Paul D. she remembered her love for Halle. Paul D. was one of the only people she could have married that would actually be able to understand what she was doing and why and what her past was because Paul D. was a sweet home man. To Sethe, the clearing represented the memory of Halle and Baby Suggs and her family. She brought Denver and Beloved there just to remember. Rememory was brought up only in the presence of the name of Baby Suggs.  

Self Reliance

On page 23 Emmerson wrote, "it is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." Emmerson is stating tha a true man is one who lives with other people but also remains true to himself at that point. People should be involved and interactive with as many different groups of people as possible but they must stay true to their vurtue and not change their overall self identity. They can change based off other people's opinions in small ways but those small ways should not effect their overall self identity: "All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere" (25). He thinks that first every man must trust himself before he must trust others and therefore develop in his life: "trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string" (20). Although society pushes for conformity, man must not conform because he has to stray strong to his original virtures. God gave us great lives originally because everyone in the world is different, and therefore we must not let what god gave us change but rather adapt to little things.

Quran-burning on again, off again

This article really pushes the issue of freedom of speech in teh first amendment. There is just no reason for this person to go so far against a different religion. We live in a world where we are around or see different religions and different types of people everyday. If this church  or this person cant tolerate building a mosk that is actually a couple blocks away from ground 0 adn not physically on ground 0, then he has some other major problems. The fact that he is a pastor and cant deal with people and their own respected opinions is ridiculous. The pastor is refusing to not burn the Quron and is taking responsibility for an issue that is way bigger than he is. He is being selfish by doing this and is not being realistic. By doing this, the pastor is looking at a minority and blaming a minority instead of looking at a majority. He is being the extremist by doing this and the person in charge of the mosk at ground 0 is being the normal person. The pastor is terrorizing a different religion. How would he feel if someone decided to burn the bible because a christian decided to put a church around a site like 9/11? He is basing the burning off of his original reaction and is obviouslly not thinking his decisions through.

Packet Pages 57-60 80-88

It is unbelievable how sometimes in life you feel like you know exactly what people are like and exactly what happened in different situations. I found out the ridicoulous sacrtifice that the 56 people who signed the declaration of independance made. The reason that theses rules adn freedom still lasts today is becauseo of the underrated effort that these people put in. "it is important to remember that despite the hardships, not a single ofne of the detrected or failed to honor his pledge. They paid their price and feedom was born." (57). These people adn their signature were more menaingful than anyone could have imagined. These people are amazing people! Their storiers and their relentless desire in what they believed in reminds me of the survivors and non-survivors of the holocaust. Both groups made sacrifices adn desired things for the good of everyone as a whole.