I, too, Sing America

 After reading Hughes poems I noticed the one of the his major themes: The poet was not ashamed of being black. He even emphasized the theme of the beauty of being black. I found it incredible given the era. Through his poetry there was courage, strength, and uplifting spirits which encouraged the working class African Americans.  I enjoyed reading this poem, I, too, Sing America. My first thought was this is a response to the famous Whitman's I hear America singing. And it was. The injustice of the white to the black is well-known. But, in this poem, the poet asserts he is also an American person and so do all the African Americans. There is an attitude of change here. "Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--I, too, am America." This is really powerful. 

Ethnicity.

The conversation about ethnicity and whether ethnicity can be a choice or not is heated because it can be interpreted many ways from different perspectives by people who either inherit or reject their ethnicity. It is complicated especially when it comes to the United States since I couldn't really think of a ethnicity that properly suits what we have here. The short history of America and its diverse population make it harder to define the American identity. No matter the type of social construction we have, ether the melting pot or cultural pluralism, Ethnicity is undefined. If I want to tell people who know nothing about me that my ethnicity is American, I think people will believe it. However, if the any one of my amcon classmates go to China and tell people their ethnicity is Chinese, I doubt that people will buy it. I don't think this is the issue of race, of whether you look "American" or "Chinese". Personally I find that an "American look" or "American ethnicity" is somehow easier to present. Not to fall into stereotype or classification, but after four years of living here, I think I can identify Americans from those of other countries.

Still on the topic of gender identity

Friday in class we talked about a few passages that were key to our discussion on gender and sexually in the construction of social identity. Going along with this topic and the discussion, especially the first passage about Evelyn Nesbit that Mary pointed out, I have some thoughts that I didn't get the chance to share with the class. We talked about how Evelyn was the commodity between the two men, Henry Thaw and Stanly White, and she was simply a possession but not a person of affection. I see this situation as a competition and approval-seeking opportunity among the men. These two men, in particular, have an equal status in class, wealth and power. So the manipulation and procession of women, in this case, the beautiful Evelyn, were more significant to "win" this competition. In the male's world, the approval of strength and power from other males and the winning of any competition among males, are way more important than getting approval from other females. One of the hot topic today we always talk about, the equality of gender is rather complicated because psychologically and naturally there is a gap among the two different sex, and taking this into account, equality is hard to completely realize.

Gender and Social Identity

This semester I am taking a sociology and anthropology class from Professor Nordstrom called Gender in a cross-cultural perspective. In the few classes we have had so far, we talked about gender roles, both in terms of biological aspects and social and cultural aspects. We also talked a lot about how human are shaped into their gender role from the particular society a person is from, and how the environment such as peers, parents, and other media of contact impacts a person. I think this is pertinent to our discussion of gender identity in Ragtime and American society. Ragtime is set in the era of significant women's movements. Women were employed away from home, their images had changed, and they were pursuing higher education and even a career. However, women were still women. Even today, sexual dimorphism is still very apparent- the society "excepts" a woman to act this way and a man to act that way. The intersection between gender and social identity in my opinion is that both men and women are seeking for the so-called correct or better class and identity by presenting, even exaggerating, their "gender expectation code".  By doing it, they get approval from the society, and thus gain a certain kind of identity.

Social Class

One passage in Ragtime that is related to social class:
pp130: "So that was it, the strike would be won. But then what? heard the clacking of the looms. A salary of six dollars and change. Would that transform their lives? They would still live in that wretched room, in that terrible dark street. Tateh shook his head. this country will not let me breathe."

In this passage Doctorow depicted a situation that is very common in the United States and other capitalist countries: The unequal distribution of wealth among the upper class and the working class. 
"By 1990 the top 10 percent of the population owned 70 percent of all wealth; the top 1 percent owned 45 percent. Income from rents, dividends, and interest surpassed income from wages and salaries for the first time ever."-From the PDF Social Class. This phenomenon is occurring in almost all societies, and the uneven distribution of wealth is usually ascribed to different levels of productivity in a particular country. Economists have debated over and over again regarding this topic because for me if we somehow manage to make the people in a country all have the same level of productivity, it is rare that people will end up with the same financial and social statues. As it has always been suggested, the total equal distribution of wealth and income will diminish productivity and development. There should be a better solution to this issue, but I couldn't came up with one since I am not an economist. The working class, who often seeks higher wages and other rights, form groups--voluntary associations among each other to have more power against the executives. Like Teteh said the amount raised is insignificant, but it does provide closure and companionship for the working class people.

Ragtime and America

          I was very excited to read the first fiction book we have in Amcon, until I realized the some of the familiar characters. I found it fascinating how Doctorow ties different characters intertwined with each other and the line between fiction and facts blurs within the story telling. The beginning of the new century was the beginning of technology and industries, when the Wright brothers made their first fly and Ford's cars driven in people's home. In Takaki's history book I didn't find anything particular about history in the 1900s but Takaki has a significant amount of descriptions and history about immigrants in his book. In the first part of Ragtime, Doctorow writes about immigrants too. In chapter 2, “Father, a normally resolute person, suddenly foundered in his soul. A weird despair seized over him" (13) when he saw the immigrants on the deck. The New Yorkers despised immigrants, yet ironically they were all immigrants or decedents of immigrants to this country. Takaki talks about the Irish, Chinese, Japanese in California, who had the same life and poverty as those in New York. I like how Doctorow jumps around in stories and characters but somehow they are related. Father saw the immigrants, the poor, and Teteh and the little girl connect to Evelyn, and then to Thaw. In the prison Houdini encountered Thaw. And Houdini's car crashed into the family. Everything and everyone is connected in this world, through events, people, and coincidence. Everything all together makes up the country. These are all pieces of the United States: we have the poor, the affluent, different classes of people, and different ideas. These all consist the beginning of the 20th century America. However, "The entire population seemed to him over-power, brash and rude"(39), as Fraud states, and "America is a mistake, a gigantic mistake"(39). I think advance technology and capitalist economy make our lives easier, but they also generates problems for the lower class. The poor were poorer, but paradoxically, people still "honor" the poor by decorating the ball room. Charity, they called it.    

Unveil Liberty

Edward Moran (1829-1901) Statue of Liberty Unveiled

Flags around the world,
French, American.
She reveals from the clouds.
Children, enlightened.
Sun peaks on
Victory, liberty.
Freedom shines
with world gathered for the great moment,
Motivated.

Like I said in class yesterday, it is great to be back to America, where freedom and democracy are floating in the air. I didn't mean that I was in prison in China, but no access to any news media made me want to get a ticket and fly straight to the United States.  A lot had happened this summer: Libya, Israel, another possible recession, hurricane Irene, Japanese prime minister etc. It seems that troubles always surround the world. One of the biggest news/tragedy that happened this summer in China was the crash of two high-speed train. Thirty-six people died from the crash, official said. Put the technical reason for this accident aside to another discussion, I was surprised to see so many "rumors" sprang from Renren (a social network like Facebook that is popular in China) and Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter). I called them rumors because they are different from what the official said and some were even denied by the officials. I, a 19-year-old who reads the news on the newspaper and the rumors from the internet just like everybody else, could not differentiate what is the truth. Is there even a truth to tell? I believe that they were more people died in the accident, not just 36, but I don't think the rumors of "the government made this happened" or "the government officials buried the parts of the train and lots of dead bodies". A common sickness of the society in China is that because of power and benefits, experts and officials do not speak the truth. They become the origins of lot of lies and rumors, which result in a untrusted society. Putnam's social trust no longer exists. Therefore people not only won't trust the experts but also won't trust the government because they always hide from us.