In response to my previous Posts

In response to my previous Posts


Of the posts I have posted, and those that I have yet to post (which are on my computer and I need to post them), I have to say my favorite are about Helga, Roxy, and Ms. Ellen Craft. I very much liked talking to, and through the black women of these stories. I think each of these characters were special and dynamic because in a lot of ways, the story, the tale, the history was happening to them, and they were the subject of what was occurring. Even for Helga, though she was making the choices, can calling the shots, I believe that she was the subject of Larsen’s world. I believe Helga was in the same positionality as Roxy and Ms. Craft; all three were in a world where they were the double minority.

I believe, of these three responses, my favorite was the one I wrote to by Ms. Craft to Higginbotham. It was my first, and yet very organic, and felt right. I think I love that one so much, because I was playing a strong woman who felt and knew what Ms. Higginbotham was writing in her work. In a lot of ways, I enjoy speaking from a praxis point of view—where the theory and ideas come into play in the flesh, in reality, in the experiences of the people for which the theory describes. I very much enjoyed that piece, and it was a very nice exercise.

Of all the post, I think I enjoyed and entertained the theme of the, discovery. The discovery of power—of white power, and what that really meant to the other races, and how it formed their identity. But also, the discovery that this power can be faked, redone, and misguided—the idea that that it does not actually exist for anyone… I think I very much enjoyed writing this, in these themes.

As for what questions remain...I am not really sure. I think my final research paper on Minstrel Shows and Blackface will cover the gaps in identity and performance that I have been missing so much. I am really interested in what happens after passing. What happens when one performs his or her own identity as a trope, to reveal its contractedness, and how it can come to be and be performed… I think Playing Indian did the most to fill this gap, but I always want more…how does and Asian act more Asian? How is it represented in our imaginations, in our media? And how do these ideas in our imagination affect how we treat people in reality….how does it form policy? We have done some reading and work into this, but I believe there is so much more… It could be a whole course…. But this is a more general course, describing the identity and imagination complex over US history…. And of that, I think we have done a good job.

One last question, for us an everyone: How do the readings give you a sense about how the US imagination play a role in our perception and treatment of people and diversity?

----Temoc