Reflecting

This class has explored identity and race in America, a topic I was somewhat familiar with from a class I took in high school. However, this semester I have learned how to write about these concepts with more rigor. My writing process certainly became more fluid as I began to revise more heavily than I had before. I had not used peer comments much in the past, and multiple workshops for each paper was a novel addition to my writing. I had thought before that I always wrote linearly, with a very structured writing and revision process, but over the course of the semester, my drafts have progressed in a more flexible manner.

Writing is certainly going to continue to be part of my life, even if discrete discussions of race and identity will not be the focus of my career. In engineering, communication is vitally important, so coherent rhetoric will continue to be my pursuit. Additionally, the idea of sharing your ideas to the world on the internet is the focus of the blogging we did as well as medium of many open source engineering projects. Being able to develop, read, and comment on online articles are skills that I have worked on this semester that will be carried forward.

Thanks for a great semester! One down, seven to go.

Researching Researchers

Here are three types of sources that have proved to be insightful in my research

Newspapers:

Newspaper articles from the time of the discovery were very straight forward, with the story being presented with only Watson and Crick receiving credit. These clippings come long before the real story reaches the media.

Letters:

A letter that I found was the letter nominating Watson and Crick for the Nobel Prize. This is hard to read, with Franklin given absolutely no credit. Knowing that this, and ultimately the nobel prize, is one of the main reasons that she was left out of the equation for so long is troubling.   

Circk actually sent a letter to his friend outlining the discovery before he wrote his book. This letter gives substantial credit to Rosalind Franklin is the main source of proof of what she did. I have been having a terrible time finding this letter however. I have found many articles talking about it, but am still looking for a copy of it that I can read for myself.

Textbooks:

As my argument evolves more to critique her portrayal in modern textbooks rather than talking about her at all, I will be using these textbooks as primary sources. I have found textbooks online as well as those used at USC in Biology courses. What they have shown me is that Rosalind Franklin is continually outlined as a controversy, or a side note to the story about Watson and Crick. If she is present in the book, she is given a sidebar as an add-on to the information, rather than being presented as facts

Rosalind Franklin: Discovery is in her DNA

I have chosen to talk about Rosalind Franklin for this project. She was the person who developed the experiment that produced an image for DNA. However, two men, Watson and Crick, published findings and ultimately won the Nobel Prize for essentially her work and she died too young to advocate for herself. More than a decade ago, people our age would not have heard of her at all in their science classes. Luckily, we are now fed a revision to this story of Watson and Crick. Most moderately progressive classes and teachers will include the narrative of Franklin not receiving the credit deserved.

However, we cannot stop there. In conventional science class, her part in the discovery of DNA structure has to be a straightforward fact, rather than an addition or part of a description of controversy. This is an important consideration because we need to normalize the role of women in science. In the context of struggles against sexism, Franklin’s controversy is relevant, but in the science classroom, this is not the history that should be presented. Young girls should see her as a great science that can make groundbreaking discoveries right alongside the men.

Researching for 12 years...

In the course of my research I found two main gripes with the Samuel Bass character that I am studying. The first is how Brad Pitt’s character was heavily publicized even though his role in the movie was minute. This article from The Daily Beast argues that the movie used the fame and whiteness of Brad Pitt to make its mostly minority cast more relevant. This is evident from the horribly misleading movie posters displayed in Italy:

The other part that reviewers found troubling was the lack of development of Bass and the fact that the movie completely glassed over how much time and effort it took to actually get Solomon out of his crummy situation. According to one reviewer, “he worked for almost a year, sent out several letters, and when they weren't hearing anything back he began saving up for the trip to saratoga himself...”

I decided to investigate the disparity between the movie and the book further by actually reading the original book. This is the ultimate source because it was written by Solomon himself and it revealed that weeks had passed before Solomon even talked to Bass about his situation, much less received help from him. There is a lot of time and effort left out of this movie for sure.

12 Years a Slave

*Spoilers Obviously*

I am writing about the movie 12 Years a Slave which shares the story of a free black man being kidnapped and put through the tortures of slavery for 12 whole years. The element of the white savior comes at the very end when a traveler (Brad Pitt) arrives and presents the ultimate altruistic white sympathetic character type. His entire role in his two scenes is to intellectually beat down the slave master and risk his own life to help the protagonist, named Solomon.

The traveler fits into the White savior archetype in a variety of ways. He shows up very abruptly with not much context for his character other than his virtuous demeanor. He has no perceivable flaws and appears to be morally perfect, even risking himself for Solomon. This perfect character fixes the problem presented throughout in a matter of seconds in the movie, which made the story feel a bit empty.

However, this film did a great job of addressing the second problem: the Magic Negroes. All of the slaves in the movie had real personality and intelligence, something absent from most Slave movies. The slave owners used creature-terminology to describe the slaves, but the movie itself did give the slaves agency and morals. Solomon even was able to convince the master that a white man was lying, which is impressive for the circumstances.

Who is this space for?

The park that I discussed in the previous post has revealed more interesting nuances regarding the surrounding community and the initiative that built it. However, something that I found particularly interesting is the lack of outside conflict of interest. Most of the sources that I have read have discussed a purpose for the space that opposes what would be most wholesome for the community. In the case of this little playground and community area, it was built for the good of area by the city as part of exposition park. There is no commercial incentive, no push for diversity or the mixing of ethnic groups.

However, following another theme of community involvement in shaping the space, this park was built by the city. Additionally, there was not any space left for the community to adapt to their needs, they simply had to use what they were given. Although this sounds problematic, the qualitative evidence I have collected shows success in the design of the park. People look like they are having a great time, but they are merely users, rather than contributors. Maybe it would have been cool to have a more multipurpose space that could be adapted to suit the community’s particular needs

These are just some themes that came out of the readings, and now I am working on pulling them together in a strong argument.

Eposition Park playground

The space that I chose was the exposition park playground area, formally known as Jesse Brewer Jr. Park and described on google maps as: Small, secluded neighborhood green space adjacent to the Natural History Museum of LA. I picked this space because, aside from its proximity to campus, the number of people using it for leisure from a very distinct Latino demographic. As you can see from the above pictures, the park consisted of a crossing walkways with lots of trees, grass spaces, and most prominently a playground. Some other important amenities that I noticed were porta-potties and an adjacent bus stop.

The community that I found at this park was entirely Latino, so I was certainly out of place when I visited. I realized quickly that it appears, from the dedication plaque, as though the park was designed by white people, but used exclusively by Latinos, which is an odd contradiction. However, it far from a hostile environment for this community, with signs being written predominantly in Spanish.

Overall this is a space that is welcoming to families for playtime, groups of adolescents for hanging out, and the whole community for potlucks. There are a lot more things I still want to learn about the park, though, including its history, funding program, and maintenance. Also, its relation to the other exposition park activities is interesting: i wonder how many of these kids are attending the museums. Lastly, I plan to visit on a weekday to see how the attendees differ than the sunday evening crowd that I witnessed the other day.  

EXTRA CREDIT #1

The other night I went to the interview and concert by Rebeca Lane of Guatemala. I went into it know just that she did rap and a bit of social commentary, but that is not unique for rappers. However, the feeling and messages that she incorporates into all of her work was more inspiring than I had imagined. She started off the event with an interview, which primarily consisted of her using vague questions as a method of telling all her cultural history, ideas, and philosophies about rap. However, she managed to do this in a conversational tone that was very engaging and those of us who were not native to the area learned a great deal about the situation of Guatemala. She focused on the emotions of the aftermath of the genocide which was very moving. The most endearing times were when she used the spanish speakers in the audience to help translate her thoughts. After this was a Q & A from the audience that did a good job of bringing her down to earth. Her actual rap was very well produced and executed, but was entirely in spanish. If she had not explained all of the themes of her music in the interview and between songs, I would have been completely lost. However, what made the experience amazing was the way the audience reacted and interacted throughout the songs. Many of the people around me, presumably native spanish speakers, were completely overcome by the emotion she presented in the songs and the atmosphere not something I had ever been a part of at a rap concert. Even though I could not understand the lyrics, just looking around the auditorium was immensely powerful and worthwhile.  

This had significance relevance to this class because Rebeca talked about the identity of her people and the duty she had to her heritage. The community built in her hometown was exceptionally strong, but what was more impressive was watching the people in the audience identifying with her topics. She talked extensively about how a community can overcome an extreme tragedy like this with hope and honor, rather than mourning. This is the kind of ethnic identity that is interesting to study and relevant to the material in this class. Another side of identity that she presented was how in Guatemala, she is considered western and white relative to the rest of the students, but here in America she is treated as a person of color. This is a very interesting phenomenon and it is unfortunate that she could be semi-excluded from both identities. This is a topic that I’d like to research further.  

If my ethnic identity was not what i thought...

It is not hard for me to imagine discovering an ethnic identity that I was not aware of previously because I do not currently have one beyond being American. I legitimately do not know where my ancestors are from so I would not be surprised to learn. However, what I do know is that the American identity that I currently have is sufficient as a culture.Because I am not dependant on a foreign ethnicity, learning that I am in fact a descendant of a particular heritage outside of the country would not be startling. I would not feel obligated to immediately change my life to conform to this new identity. However, I think I would be compelled to learn about the culture and potentially give myself the title. If it were based in religion, I do not believe I would adopt a faith for that reason, but would certainly learn about it. I believe it is important to learn the context in which your family lived, but I do not predict that I would undergo any sort of conversion. Ironically, this thought is very foreign to me because I have never had an experience like this. It is definitely interesting to think about, though!

Finding Myself

Dick strikes a chord with me; I can wear his shoes pretty comfortably because I am not part of any racial or ethnic groups outside the white American identity. I have experienced a similar desire to find my ancestry to develop an identity, but have had no success finding any ancestors that were from outside the states in any capacity. Aside from contributing only hotdogs to ‘ethnic food nights’, this has not been much of a problem . However, I have thought about the lack of identity before and this episode did bring up some issues I have considered.

The hardest parts about ultimately acquiring an identity are the sensitivity of the group and the need to be authentic. Dick should have used more caution when inquiring about different races, but he does accurately point out that he does not have the necessary qualifications for being black. Because I am white, and do not speak any European languages, I could not easily assimilate with a racial group. However, an identity that Dick, or anyone, can acquire without too much friction is religion. (full disclaimer: I am not religious so these are just my interpretations) Because religion based on belief, spirituality, and commitment rather than appearance or ancestry in many situations, I could feasibly convert later in life. Even though religion does not have all of the same characteristics as race, it is not a bad replacement. I think Dick should have researched religion and made an intelligent decision to learn a new faith. I think it is slightly easier to consider religions without ranking them, but that would be absolutely critical when choosing because there is no ‘best’.

The next step would be to actually convert. I tried, and failed, to find a wikihow on religious conversions (this was the closest I found), but it is a regular occurrence. It is important to fully invest in the faith, something that is almost as new for me as for Dick, because you do not get the experience just by observing a church service or two. I think being spiritual is probably going to be beneficial anyway (except maybe nihilism?), so there is no harm in trying -- I likely will later in life. If Dick takes this route, I am optimistic for him, but he has to be very careful, and take his time. Neither of those lent themselves to a sitcom for obvious reasons, but I think the core intent of discovery was a good idea.