Blog 5

I drive a taxi cab for a living. About two weeks ago on a Tuesday afternoon I was sitting in my cab at the intersection of 3rd. and Towsand. There were police cars there, the street was blocked off and a yellow canvess was laying in the street. It was clear to see that the canvess was covering a body. It looked as if someone had been hit by a car and killked. The next day in the newspapers I read about a person being run over by a mail truck at 3rd. and Towsand. The person in the papers was someone I had seen before but did not know personally. He was a black who had lost both his legs and use to get around on a skatebord. When I lived near the corner of Broadway and Columbus in North Beach, I use to see him all the time. I remember one time he was parked outside the hotel where I was living. As I walked passed him to enter the hotel he heald an empty cup up at me for me to give him some change. I looked at him and shook my head and kept on going into the hotel I stayed at. I remember thinking to my self, why does'nt he get a wheelchair like other people who've lost their legs. On another occasion he was crossing grant street on the North East Side of Colombus Avenue, he almost got hit by a car and seem to think nothing of it. I thought to myself, if he dosen't get himself a wheelchair he's gona get hit by a car one of these days. People can see him in a wheelchair but that skate board he's on makes it dificult for anyoe to see him. According to the news paper the driver of the mail truck did not see him and ran over him. The people who knew him set up a shrine for him near the corner of Eddy and Taylor. After reading about it in the papers I went down to Eddy and Taylor about nine thirty or nine fourty five that evening, and felt like I was in a different world. I was reminded of a time when I use to live among people who all had Devils and Demons inside them. We are all trobled by our own devils and demons, but the devils and demons that are brought on by drug addiction have become a major proublem in the black community.

Blog 4

In the essay, "On Being Black and Middle Class," the author writes of the turbulent times during the 60s. On page 165 he writes of the "racial identification" of black people, going through a transformation into a monotithic "singular people with a common experience of oppression." Before the 1960, black people in the US. went by the name negros. Today black people in the US. no longer consider themselves as negros. The process of a race of people in the US. no longer calling themselves by the name negros, but calling themselves black people is very much a part of what the author is talking about on page 165 and 166. Earlier in the essay (bottom of page 163) the author mentions how the black middle class has always identified with the "upper-class white society." Steele writes, "This habit goes back to the institution of slavery itself, when 'house' slaves both mimicked the whites they served and held themselves above the 'feild slaves.' " During slavery, the mulatto (a person with one white and one black parent) considered themselves better than a black person whos parents were both black. The mulatto was also a slave, but because he/she was half white they felt they were on a higher level of existance than the dark complexted slave. Many years after slavery ended this partice continued and light complexted negros ( not all but most) considered themselves better than the darker complexed negros. I wanted to write an essay on how the black people in the US. went from being called negros to being called black people, but the research would take too long and I could never get it done on time.

Blog 3

In the essay, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" James Balwin claims; "...Black English began with the formation of the black church under the conditions of slavery. It was not merely the adoption of a foregin tongue, but an alchemy that transformed ancient elements into a new language." Baldwin does not focus on why Black English is, or is not, a dialect. The first slaves who learned to speak english, spoke the words in the African way of communication. They taught their children to speak the language this way, which was passed on from one generatino to the next. Today we call it Ebonics. In the essay by Rachel Jones, "What's Wrong with Black English," Jones is more in favor of black people doing away with black English, and trying to learn the proper way to speak and write the English language. I cannot beleive these two essays were placed back to back by pure accident.

Blog 2

There is at least one theme which runs through all of the readings. That theme is assimilation of the minority race of people into the majority race of people. I was born in 1952 and I can remember when black people in the United States use to be called negros and colored people. Years ago there use to be a code hidden in the language when talking about a black person. If the person in question had dark skin they would call him a Negro. If the person in question had light skin they would call him a colored person or a person of color. A colored person, or a person of color, would mean the person in question had both black and white ancestors. A dark skin person who looked as if all of his ancestors decsended from Africa would more than likely be called a negro rather than a colored person, although the word negro applied to all light or dark.
When I was a boy I use to hear the word mulatto used quit a bit. If a white person and a black person had a child together the child was called a mullato. Now days, if a white person and a black person have a child together the child is a member of the black race of people.
The term Afro-American was not used as much then as it is today. Black people with college degrees were the ones who use to call themselves Afro-Americans. The majority of black people without a college degree did not want to identify with Africa. They were too busy tring to assimilate into a culture that was dominited and controled by white people.

What is it that is on everything, but you cannot see it or touch it? On the first day of class the instructor asked three different people , "Who Are You." When the persons answered the question they would tell the instructor there names. The instructor would ask them the same question again. The person being asked the question would give a different answer, this time they would tell something about thenselves. When they finished ansewring the same question the instructor would ask it again for a third time. After being asked a third time the persons asked the question would stop and think hard about how they were going to anwser the question. What was the answer the instructor was looking for? The persons name was not the answer the instructor wanted. What the person did , there likes or dislikes was not the answer. One of the persons in the class says she would have said, "I am a child of god." I 'm sure the Instructor would have said, "Yes, But Who
Are You? and it would have went on and on like that for some time. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER IS, or why she kept asking the same question repeatedly, hoping to get a different answer each time she asked the question. But it did seem like she was playing some kind of mind game on the three students who were asked the question, Who Are You. The one thing I do know, is that I know, that I know, what I know. And that one thing is this, What is it that is on everything but you cannot see ot or touch it? The answer is a label. Everything has a name. We have put a name on everything, and the name which we carry so proudly as our own name is nothing more thasn just a label.

Question For The Class

To the English 96 class, section 501. I have a question for the class. What is it that is on everything but you cannot see it or touch it?