Reflection #2

The most enjoyable essay that we read in class was In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. I enjoyed this essay very much because black history has always been one of my favorites to cover. Though it is a tragic history it is very intellectual to read about their struggles and how they managed to push though them and rebel against the dominant society. It was an easy essay for me to write about because it is a topic I feel passionately about, although it is the one topic I do not think I'd ever be able to take a different stance on. This is one of the essays that I'd recommend to you, as a teacher, to reuse in future classes, but I also think that it would be a better essay at the start of class rather then near the end of the class. It was overall one of the best essays to write about and easy to read and enjoy.

Reflection #1

One of the essays I thought was difficult to write about was Secrets and Anger? By David Mura. I thought this essay was one of the harder ones I had to write about because it was hard to be able to agree or disagree with his stances. I agreed that the idea of casting an Asian American for an Asian American theater show (Such as Miss Saigon) was an obvious answer to the casting call, but as a white woman I also thought that casting a white person for the theater performance was also a step forward for the white society. I was torn with the situation but I decided to take one stance and write on that instead of trying to focus on two different stances of the story. The idea of segregating either society from one another was a thought that I did not enjoy toying with. I did, though, enjoy writing on this essay because it forced me to take one side over the other and be able to write about it rather than just focusing on the side I am the most comfortable with.

A Clack of Tiny Sparks

Cooper forces the particular issue of being gay in an American culture that has not fully accepted the idea of being of a different sexual orientation. Our language is coded to label individual sexual identity because of the words we use to describe that identity. We use words like Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Faggot, Homo, Nancy Boy, Queer, and Queen. These words prove to be our coded language for our sexual orientations and we use them on a daily basis to describe another's sexual orientation. Whether or not it be true people still call others these names, mainly to just describe a way a person is acting. People internalize these linguistic codes by making what they are called their identity. When someone is called a faggot they may continue to act the same way, further encouraging people to call them names. It impacts their since of identity by making that language their identity.

In Search of our Mothers' Gardens

In this essay written by Alice Walker she describes trying to find her voice in a society attempting to keep her as a woman, and as a black woman held down. Language was constantly involved in this journey because she was not allowed to be literate. She and her mother, and grandparents were all held down by not being allowed to learn how to read or write. Their language was what they picked up and what they learned through being a servant to the white masters. I think the idea of the repression of black women, or the repression of women in general still exist, but it is not prevalent in our society. Men do not face linguistic repression because throughout society they have always been the dominant people. The gender and racial expectations built into language are not specific to men as they are to women. Women have more expectations to live by than men do, and when women do not follow those expectations they are talked about more than men are.