March 21, 2012

HOMEWORK DUE TOMORROW:
8-3: Read to page 76 (up until "November 15") and be ready to discuss
8-4: Read to page 99 (up until "November 21") and be ready to discuss
8-1: Read to page 76 (up until "November 15") and be ready to discuss
8-9: Read to page 76 (up until "November 15") and be ready to discuss
8-2: Read to page 76 (up until "November 15") and be ready to discuss

For those who have not turned in your permission slip or purchased your book, your homework assignment is:
Elements of Literature textbook
Read pages 547-554 and answer questions 1-7 on page 556.

Review of what we've read thus far.

Black Like Me pgs. 30-50

After John makes the transformation into an African-American and enters the "Negro world" through Sterling and Joe, the men who run the shoeshine stand on Rampart Street.

Pgs. 20-21: John boards a city bus to get somewhere and sits in the middle of the bus. An older, white woman gets on, but stands in the aisle because there aren't any seats left next to white passengers. John motions to her that she can have his seat because she looks very tired and he's being a gentleman. However, the black passengers give him dirty looks because they see it not as an act of politeness, but as a surrender to the white race. On the other hand, the white woman sees John looking at her and motioning to sit down as a threat and responds by saying to another white passenger, "They're (African-Americans) getting sassier everyday." John now understands the constant racial "tug-of-war" that goes on in even the simplest places, like a bus.

Pgs. 33-36: John leaves his hotel to get something to eat, but is soon being followed by a muscular, white young man who begins to hassle him. The young man keeps calling him "Baldy" and "Mr. No-Hair" while shouting other inappropriate things to John, who is obviously scared and looks for help. He approaches a white couple on the sidewalk and asks for help, but they ignore him, he insists that he needs help, but by then the young man has disappeared, so the couple thinks John is drunk. As soon as the couple leaves, the young man reappears and begins harassing John once again. Eventually, John gets up the courage to jump into an alley and threaten the boy from there, saying that he's "just aching to feed you a fistful of brass knucks right in that big mouth of yours." The young man, feeling threatened, leaves John alone and disappears. John returns to the Catholic church he visited earlier and sits down to calm himself, but the words from the young man ring clear. John reflects on what he's gone through in the past 24 hours and how he's been treated. He offers a very powerful assessment of the situation.

Page 36, toward the bottom of the page
"The word 'nigger' picked up the bell's resonances and repeated itself again and again in my brain.
"Hey, nigger, you can't go in there.
"Hey, nigger, you can't drink here.
"We don't serve niggers.
"And then the boy's words: Mr. No-Hair, Baldy, Shit-head. (Would it have happened if I were white?)
"And then the doctor's words as I left his office yesterday: Now you go into oblivion."

In 24 hours - since he left the dermatologist's office - John has not been able to cash a check, he experienced racial tensions on the bus and became everyone's enemy, he was treated rudely when trying to buy cigarettes, and he was stalked through the street and under the threat of physical attack.