Friday, September 12, 2008

Blogging Project Post #2

Here's your second opportunity to blog. Feel free to discuss, question others, question me; at all times, however, write appropriately!

There was generally overall silence when discussing Olaudah Equiano. What made this piece of literature so difficult to discuss? Was it a hard piece to read? Was it more emotionally challenging? Or does our culture seem to want to avoid discussions of slavery and the awkwardness, pain, and sometimes embarrassment, anger, and guilt that come along with such discussion?

40 comments:

JP Kuhlman said...

I believe that the class either was to shy to say something because the would not want to be criticized, did not want to say something offensive, or they just had no set opinion. I personally was afraid i would say something offensive and the pace of the class also left me behind because when i had an idea we had already moved on. I now wish i had said some of the things that were on my mind. I although think it is a good idea for Mr. Dutrow to call on people because then it will make people think and criticism wouldn't be as bad if something offensive was said.

Anonymous said...

I think why it made it so difficult to discuss, is becuase of the reactions we would get in the classroom if we said something offensive, like 10jkuhlman said. It was difficult to read because we grew and our growing into a world which tells us not to think about or read about slavery, and if we do we would feel a bunch of emotions coming at us and our friends, which we dont want.

I think that we have something to say about slavery, but its to much of a sensitive issue to deal with, that no one wants to talk about it.

msj10SCelestina said...

Slavery is something that is very hard for Americans to talk about. Many people think they are at fault like white men. Slavery started many different events in our countries history. It started the civil war and equal rights protests and many angry people. It shaped the United States today and the opportunities for the people. Slavery is a word many people would rather not bring up but they have to in our history as a country.

10Jbrown said...

What made Olaudah Equiano so hard to discuss was that both sides (black or white), felt uncomfortable talking about the topic. Most people want to forget slavery ever happen in the U.S.,it was such a horrible time. Whites don't like talking about it because whites feel responsible for what happen. Blacks feel like forgetting about this because blacks were the victims. Reading this story brought us all back to that time. How horrible and smelly the slave ship was. How blacks weren't treated like people, but as animals. Talking about this just makes people uneasy.

AnthonyViennas said...

I think the reason why the class was not discussing the story, was due to the fear of saying something offensive by accident. I believe most people would rather set this part of history behind us, and pretend it never happend, but again this is impossible. I personally was also afraid of saying something offensive, so I can understand if anyone else felt this way as well.

Christian Henry said...

I thoght the test was very easy. If you did all yor homework and reviewed the vocabulary words, you passed the test already. The only problem was that the essay questions in the back took up a lot of time and you can expect a few people to stay after more if they aren't shortened. However they are a great source of points and can save your grade. Either way its a bitter sweet deal.

Michael Domenici said...

I feel the same as you guys. I thought I was going to say something offensive and thats why I really didn't contribute to the conversation. Its a past that people usually don't like to discuss.

Andrew Broedel said...

I agree with everyone that this is a touchy subject. America might be coming to the end of the racial tension, if Obama is elected president.

Elliott Hyde said...

I also believe that people did not want to talk about slavery because of what others have said that they might recieve grief for a comment.Another thing I think is that people whould rather not talk about this subject.

Sonic teh Hedgeblog said...
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Sonic teh Hedgeblog said...

I believe that it was a fairly easy read howeve, the topic of slavery, I believe, will always be a hard topic to discuss. It makes me uneasy to say anything about that especially if there are African American student in the room because I'm afraid that I might offend someone even if I thought that the comment I made was harmless.
I do think its possible to have a good discussion if I was assured that it was an open discussion.
Taylor Bowman

Bennett Wolfe said...

I think that the class did not want to talk about slavery because they did not want people to think differently because of their views. It is also difficult to talk about this if you are not of the race that was enslaved because you might feel guilt or auquardness talking about this subject in front of people.

Troy Brodie said...

I think people did not want to share their opinions on the subject because they did not want to offend anyone or be judged based on them.

Jesse Gregory said...

I thiught that it was a really disturbing thing to read. It explained how this soon to be slave endured the middle passage. It was absolutley unbearable living conditions to live in. I think that I would have died on this trip across the Atlantic if I was a slave

Ritchie Pevo said...

I believe Olaudah Equiano was a difficult piece of literature to discuss because, even today, the subject of slavery is a very fragile one. Some people feel violated when it's talked about, when others are simply in denial of it ever occurring. In most cases, I believe that people were shy of the subject due to their fear of possibly offending another classmate in the classroom (black or white) due to the very sensitive topic. In other cases, however, I believe that some people were simply ignorant to what was actually happening during the time of slavery and didn't have a firm view on the topic.

michaelrovnan said...

I believe that it is a part of our Country’s past that all of us would want erased. It is a time of great pain for many people for our Country and is more of an embarrassment to our country than anything else for we are the top country in the world we don’t want to show that we had a bad spot in our own history. For around the time of slavery most other Countries were ahead of us by illegalizing slavery and that shows that we weren’t always the leader of the world as we think as ourselves now.

Eric Matthews Jr said...

This was a hard matter to discuss, because first of all, it is about slavery and people don't want to talk about a horrible past America has. Even though we were nothing apart of it, it still haunts us. We don't like to talk about such a bad, terrible thing that people did to African_Americans. A lot of people take it their own way. Some people feel very shy talking about it and that they feel it shouldn't be talked about. While others don't feel the same way. They can talk about it, but still have a bad feeling.

Willis410 said...
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rrobinson10 said...

I think that this was a hard story to read, and the issue of slavery still is something that people dont want to talk about. I dont think that people dont want to talk about it its jus that they dont want to offrnd anybody. I also think that certain people do feel guilty about slavery, but they shouldnt because they had nothing to do with it.

Willis410 said...

I think that slavery is not really a subject that people enjoy talking about. It wasn't really a difficult piece of literature, but it was a subject that did not want to be spoken about.

Michael Leviski said...

People in todays society try to stay away from talking about slavery I think because they want it to be the past. We haven't gotten to the point where we can freely talk about it, like it's not big deal. It wasn't a hard piece to read, but people don't want to talk about it. I think to solve the problem, you can call on people because then it wouldn't be someone thinking like that, it would be you making them think to better the class. All in all it was a good story and should be talked about and discussed.

tydecrispino said...
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tydecrispino said...

Discussing Olaudah's story left all of our classmates feeling very awkward because of the ethicicties between classmates, and the subject of slavery it brought up. Most classmates did not respond in class, and I think they just wanted to move on because they did not want to be judged and thought of as racist. I could tell this was a topic which none of us wanted to discuss by the mood of the class as well. I know personally while hearing the story being read aloud in Mr. Dutrow's class, some of the sickening conditions the slaves and Olaudah faced were unbearable to read, moslty because I somewhat felt responsible for how they were treated, due to the color of my skin. The funny thing is my family and ancestors were all Native Americans who were also slaves up until the 1950's where they were still not allowed to be in school or stores with white people. Yet I still feel guilty for what happened to the slaves because of my skin color even though my family was apart of the cruelty as well.

Andrew Lewis said...

This is one of the hardest things to talk about. Along with this subject comes a feeling of guilt. Most people do not like to speak up in fear of saying something offensive.

viktor said...

I believe that the overall silence in the class that day had to deal with many people being tried With the topic being so racial, many people like to keep there racial view to them self and another reason is because how gruesome and disgusting the slaves environment was and many people did not want to talk about that that early in the morning. Also how it describe in detail what the salves had to go through and I think it made some people sick to their stomachs, I know it made me. But after reading about stories like theses it makes us realize how good we have it today.

Gangler Bangler said...

It was hard for me because it was about a serious and not very discussed subject. It was about slavery and that's hard for a lot of people to discuss because it is a touchy subject and almost anything you say about it can be misinterpreted.

xWBR IIIx said...

i think people in the class didnt want to say the wrong things and get another person up set. But on the other hand if more people spoke up and asked questions we would have had a better understand of things

jamie said...

I think that some people are scared to speak out on sensetive subjects like slavery. Because slavery was such a terrible thing people think they might say something and have it be taken wrong. Also i don't think there really is too much to say about it everyone practically has the same idea about it. There's really no other way around it.

Joe Winter said...

The story isnt necessarily hard to read as much as it is hard to talk about with other people. The topic of slavery is a very harsh topic for people, especially of the African American variety. The fact that the slavery topic is consistantly used as a trump card when race differences and debates is brought about is just sad and not needed.

Christian Henry said...

It wasn't very difficult for a black person to discuss but, it was hard for a lot of the classroom to discuss because of certain things that happened. I think that most people were mostly afaid to talk about slavery. It was not a hard peice to read bu it was very sad and sickening how the slaves were treated.

KarlGreen said...

The reason this piece of story was hard to read was because some people tend to get uncomfortable about slavery. Reason may being is that they may think if they say something that someone else may take it offensive and make it seem like a racial slur.

ajox10 said...

i think that the reason it was so difficult to read is most people try to put in the past and don't really want to talk about it. plus we all want to talk about slavery but were kind of afraid of what people will think of your opinion and what you say. This is one of the main reason you get complete silence when we talk about this is were afraid of what others think of our answers

mark vonparis said...

The equiano narriative was very good because it tells us about his travel from Africa to America. I think it must have been hard to be a boy and to be under so much violence. Its also amazing how a young boy like that can learn how to read and write. His story is emotional and powerful at the same time.

Nick Feurer said...

What made Olaudah Equiano so hard to discuss was that both sides black or white, felt uncomfortable talking about the topic.I thought I was going to say something offensive and thats why I really didn't contribute to the conversation.

Boss Blog said...

It was difficult to discuss in class because no one has experienced this kind of trama or seen anything close to it. And in society today we are taught to hide up the dark times in American history as thought they never existed.Some of the things that were said astounded me. Tthe children falling into the crap. That just made my stomach turn upside down.

Steven Arnold

bmore10123 said...

I think that racism is the hardest topic to talk about in todays classrooms because America is so diverse. Because of this many people look past race although there are some who still have hatred for another race. How can you dislike someone because of their skin color? Its not like they can choose. And whatever race you are, be proud.

10jenglehart said...

I think the reason why it was so difficult was because we cant really relate to any of the experiences and i think that with all the racism thats around still, we were afraid to be yelled at or start serious arguments. The only reason why it made it hard was because we couldnt relate to the story well because we have neverfelt or undergo slavery. I agree with Broedel that this is a very touchy subject and I disagree with him about racial tension coming to an end if obama is elected. I think it will promote it even more. Everything that was listed in the last question avoids questions.

Bobblogs said...

Any topic on slavery is touchy. Everytime this kind of topic comes up you have to be careful of what you say and be politically correct.

Fgoodwin said...

I think the reason its so hard is because its a topic easliy thought of in a bad way. We want to forget what happened all that time ago and then going back over it brings up things not wanted.

Zack Jewby said...

I think that it is kind of difficult to discuss that matter of slavery because some people may get affended. It is difficult because somebody if asked a question they might reply in someway that someone may find offensive in someway.