After looking back over my posts from this quarter, my favorite posts -- it was a tie -- are the letter from Thomas Jefferson to his "protege" William and the letter from a modern Mexican immigrant to his predecessors. In the first letter, I really enjoyed taking on (my interpretation of) Jefferson's persona and exploring the idea of a loving relationship tainted by racism between Sally Hemings and Jefferson. I also enjoyed pondering the idea that correspondences about Sally Hemings may have existed, but were destroyed, as is the case with my blog entry, or otherwise lost.
My other favorite entry allowed me to place ideas and events I have myself witnessed into a broader historical context. I've lived in the greater Los Angeles area my entire life, and my town has a large Hispanic population. In addition, my grandfather (and his entire extended family) was of Mexican descent, so I feel a definite connection with the Chicano community. Therefore, while reading Sanchez's book, I found myself constantly comparing his descriptions to my own modern experiences, and found many commonalities as well as inconsistencies, a few of which are the subject of my blog entry. Sanchez's book also made immigration reform in the LA area and the United States in general seem even more necessary and pressing to me.
As my favorite picks suggest, two of my favorite themes from my blogs and the class in general are interracial relationships and the role of the Mexican immigrant in Southern California. Other themes that I found especially interesting include the intersection of race and sexual orientation as well as race in performance.
Remaining questions:
I am still curious as to when -- if ever -- the practice of racial passing faded out. Out of that question comes the question of whether or not people still practice passing in America today, and if so, for what purpose.
Also, I'm sure quite a few of us have already seen this, but I just thought Glenn Beck's most recent exhibition of mental instability touches on some interesting themes regarding race in American and racial identity. Here's a blog from the Huffington Post on the topic: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-green/glenn-beck-attacks-11-yea_b_594533.html
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