without words, but not voiceless: immigration in pictures

Being voiceless and silenced is an experience many immigrants had and have.  Yet this new book manages to give voice to that experience without words, that is through pictures.  And perhaps the pictures manage to communicate across the barriers of language.  Take a look to see what you think.

Excerpt from The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Speaking of gender: Princess Free Zone

The blog of a mom who got fed up with all the pink, princess stuff offered to little girls.  She offers remarkable t-shirts, commentary, links to sympathetic content.  A recent post took up the topic, "how to teach boys to be feminists."

We have been speaking of gender as one social identity factor.  We have mentioned the now standard distinction between biological sex and culturally defined gender expectations.  The later are surely dynamic and changing.   This was a major doctrine of second wave, mid-20th century American feminism.  Boys and girls learn how they are "supposed" to act and those lessons can restrict or expand their possibilities.  One small part of acting on that conviction was not insisting that girls be dressed in pink; or even insisting that they not be.  Another was to give both boys and girls lots of options of toys and activities rather than giving boys trucks and girls dolls.  Nearly twenty years ago, when I was a new mom, it was possible with a little effort to find infant clothes that were gender neutral.  Now that I'm buying baby gifts for the off-spring of my students I find that this is less possible.  The author of this blog appears to have had a similar experience.   I might also recommend the subversive kid's book, The Paperbag Princess.  This princess offers the model of an active, self-reliant response to danger.

Plastic spoons: a comment on convenience and class

 Last fall we learned that the number of forks a person owned was an indicator of social class in colonial North America.  This poster reminds me that those forks were made out of something durable such a pewter or even valuable such as silver.  Today eating utensils may not be such a reliable indicator of economic resources as in the past since relatively less money is needed to acquire them.  Nonetheless, the poster also serves to suggest that which utensils one has (rather than how many) may now be an indication of the values the user holds along with the spoon and fork.

Ethnicity = American-ness?

Athena's American Conversation: Ethnicity.: The conversation about ethnicity and whether ethnicity can be a choice or not is heated because it can be interpreted many ways from differe...

Since our in-class conversation about ethnicity and race and since reading this post from Athena, I've been pondering two sorts of "American ethnicity."

One sort would be identified by characteristics most Americans share (these would be common values such as freedom as choice or character traits such as a mingling of dissatisfaction and optimism or the tendency to speak loudly and take up lots of space) and that non-Americans easily recognize.  In addition this sort of ethnicity might be grounded in the powerful mythology of a shared ancestor, namely someone like Washington who obviously is not everyone's biological forefather, but is referred to as the "father of the country".

A second sort would be regional.  This might be the "federation" model via the melting pot model. So that over many generations the residents of each geographic area meld into distinctive groups that obscure the particular mix of folks who were their earlier. One recognizes the Pacific-Northwesterner (or more narrowly the Portlander, see Marissa's post) or the New Englander or the Texan by style and sometime substance.

I'm not sure that I'm convinced that either of these two sorts of American ethnicity has overcome the older notion of the hyphenated American who claims both an identity based in origin prior to residence in the USA and an American identity.  But, as a though exercise they help me to think about Athena's assertion that she can recognize Americans as being such.

Ancient migration . . . modern life

The BBC reports on research published in Science.  Genetic analysis of hair samples is used to reconsider the timing for migration of humans out of Africa into other areas of the world.  The geographic dispersal allowed divergent development: the basis of what has for the last few centuries commonly been called race.

Reading the report brought to mind the ways science has been employed in the past to account for differences among human beings, to classify us into groups, and to place those groups in hierarchies of value.  Concern about the third step lurks in the report.  Nonetheless, I remain a bit uneasy, unsure about how this genetic information and this account of when humans dispersed around the globe is to be used.  Even in biblical interpretation, about scientifically acquired information we must always ask: so what?  How will knowing this about ancient migrations and genetics contribute to our ability to live well together now?

Don't ask . . . the Constitution .... our next big book

Could the timing of the repeal of "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" be any better for our class?  Just as we are about to begin our reading of Gay New York, the policy change is all over the news. BBC coverage

And on Thursday, September 22, during community time in Viking Theater, in honor of Constitution Day, a faculty panel on 'gay marriage' and the Constitution.  Also timely for us!

Pronouns and identity groups.

Yesterday we touched briefly on the statement in the article on ethnicity that asserted the importance of a sense of "we."  Since then I've been musing on the difference between the pronouns "we" and "us."

Seems like "us" often implies a "them" in contrast or even conflict.  Thus I might be part of "us," but I might also be "them."  Does that suggest that these groups might be constructed from the out-side, even that I might be assigned to a group that I don't think I belong to, or even that I don't want to belong to?

Where this came from

And is it so that "we" does not have that same contrasting word?  And does that suggest that we is only defined by those who are part of the group?  And is that better?  Does it also allow that some are excluded who might want to be included?

non-figurative sunrise

As I arrived on campus:
this morning the sun rose,
shining a mango red light
through the trees,
reflected on the wet sidewalk.

My first impulse:
to wish that I were a poet.
My second:
to turn the spectacular sight into
a metaphor for something.

I stopped myself:
Let it be beautiful. 
Be grateful.
Give thanks.
Beauty at the beginning.
That is enough.

Who is a Cherokee?

HERE is the Cherokee web-page with documents about a recent tribal law-suit concerning criteria for enrolled membership.  The long history is complex but the issue is less so.  The tribal constitution requires that any enrolled member have at least one ancestor listed on Dawes rolls as an Indian.  Some assert that this amounts to racism because it based membership on "blood."  Others note that the Dawes roll recorded those with African-American and Native-American ancestry as black thereby masking some persons' legitimate claim.  In contrast those wtih White and Native ancestry were recorded as Indian.  Still others call into the question the authenticity  of persons with a single ancestor, several generations removed and who have not
associated with tribal communities or culture claiming to be Cherokee.

All this is particularly interesting in light of our conversation in class today.  Worth noting:

page from the Dawes Rolls

1.  the tribe is a nation which is a somewhat different sort of group than ethnicity among American citizens and also different from  a voluntary organization such as the Rotary.  
2. the matter arises now that there are benefits to be gained.
3. the interaction here of those who want to claim membership with those   who have authority to grant it or to deny it from within the group.  

Thinking about identity:

In Ragtime we have that scene in which Younger Brother is hiding in the wardrobe watching Evelyn and Emma Goldman and another in which Father looks at himself in the mirror.  Both offer us opportunities to think about the dynamics of identity.  In particular, I'm musing about the interaction of self-perception and the perception of others.  The two episodes in the book don't really illustrate my point; rather the first suggests that other people look at "me" and the second that "I" look at myself.

We've talked some about how identity is imposed from outside and about how individuals and groups assert their identity.  We have not mentioned the importance of others accepting what one asserts.  Here is an example from the book:  Coalhouse Walker asserts that he is a man worthy of respect.  He does this by his clothing and his manners.  Mother demonstrates that she accepts his assertion by inviting him into the parlor and serving him tea.  The firemen who harass him and destroy his car thereby show that they do not accept his assertion and declare that they see him primarily on the base of his race.  The vocabulary is significant.  Father asks for "coon" songs.  Others use the term "nigger."  But elsewhere Coalhouse is identified as Negro, which would have been the polite and respectful term at the time.

From Doctorow on writing

wish it were a Model-T

This quotation from E. L. Doctorow came to me by good luck just as we are coming to the end of his novel Ragtime and students are getting ready to write papers about the book with attention to social factors such as race, ethnicity, class, etc.   Perhaps Doctorow can encourage that project indirectly by this observation about the process of writing.

  “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”   —E.L. Doctorow

 

Something I posted in July in anticipation of this week's work

DeAne's American Conversation: shifting notions of identity: In 201, "remaking America," we are interested in the many ways Americans reconsider and revise their nation, their national self-understandi...

The earlier post includes links to three recent publications of interest to our current in-class conversations: a novel, a memoir, and an non-fiction work.

Notable: lots of American thinking about identity, esp. racial factors, in this historical context.  And a reminder that these several factors (class, gender, sexuality, etc.) are "historically bound."  That is, the concerns may be perennial, but how they are conceptualized and acted upon (or acted out) changes across time.

fall is for school

 

 

 

 

“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
― Nora Ephron

L. L. Bean sends a message, or two

1)  In Ragtime Henry Ford wears boots from LLBean when he goes to lunch with JPMorgan.  Here those boots signal that Ford is not refined; that he is pragmatic.
2)  Paul Fussell, in his book about Class, offers wearing clothing from LLBean in the late 20th century as characteristic of folks who are eager to opt out of established class structures.

In both instances we note that patterns of consumption are central to class.  One's values inform one's purchases and the items purchased, particularly clothing, display those values to others alerting them what sort of bird, with which sort of feathers, one is.

talking to everyone, representing all of us

This is a delayed post about hearing Sen. Al Franken from the MN State Fair.  He was funny in a way that I don't recall him being since he announced that he was running for the office.  He wasn't wearing glasses, as this photo shows, though I had to take that on trust since that did not show up on the radio.  He has had cataract surgery which corrected his vision.

And he said, "The best thing about being a senator, in contrast to being a candidate, is that I get to talk to everyone whether they voted for me or not."  Now, that is my idea of an elected official: one who gets that no matter which of us voted you into office, you are representing all of us.  The job is not to please please those who voted for you, even if I did, but to govern with wisdom and fairness according to the law and the nation's ideals.

Class Markers

We've been considering how various factors influence social identity and how they are portrayed in Ragtime.  Poking around on the topic of social class, I found that PBS did a program called "People Like Us."  This strikes me as an apt title since class is a matter of identifying who one is like and unlike, where one's group fits in the scheme of groups.  The site includes some games intended to display the importance of "taste" and "style" in determining class; put another way, intended to show that financial resources is the not the sole factor in identifying one's social class.

from IKEA, yes indeed

Then I played one of the games that involves furnishing a room: pick a floor covering, put stuff on the shelves, hang something on the wall, chose something to sit on, etc.  The truth: I was all over the class map!  Some old money, some middle-middle.  On another game that focused on life aspirations I kept registering near the bottom of the scale.  Maybe this is because academics are famously hard to categorize?  Maybe it is because I'm confused?  Maybe it is because in American class categories are fluid and Americans expect social mobility?  (Or it could be that the multiple choice responses just did not allow me to express my true views.)

and this from a current student

Steph's AmCon Commonplace Blog: Why is this place so wonderful?: I’m currently sitting outside with some of my best friends here at Olaf. We’re doing homework, reading, etc. I’m laying in the...

Clearly she has absorbed both the admonition of Tony Hoagland's poem and the alum as she notices the sunshine and is grateful. 

Now from one of our St. Olaf alums:

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, an event that is getting lots of media coverage from many angles, this media guy wrote that he . . . .

thinks it must be particularly offensive to people who have real things to be afraid of -poverty, unclean water, hunger, abuse, lack of political representation - when those of us who actually have a choice between living in fear or living in gratitude and hope choose to live in fear out of self-pity and childishness.

I think he is correct and will endeavor to cultivate both hope and gratitude as he suggests.  Thanks JD.

love, light, time

"Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?"

Lines from the poem "The Word" by Tony Hoagland offer us a wise reminder as school begins and days and hours are filled with necessary tasks.  Perhaps the list of "no less practical" items could be extended to the many activities that we can too easily do merely from routine, forgetting that the opportunity to read a book, play an instrument, ride a bike, share a cup of coffee with a friend, or go to class are gifts as fleeting as each day's light.  That is the lesson I take away: love is practical and even the ordinary, seemingly only practical is precious when it is a vehicle of love.

Sacred Space in the USA

Randall Balmer's article on Religion Dispatches argues that the lower Manhattan is 'sacred space', but not only because of what happened there a decade ago.  That the twin trade towers were attacked is not trivial, but these were chosen as targets because they already were symbolic of American ideals.  He writes:

"Whether they knew it or not, then, the terrorists who guided those fuel-gorged jets into the World Trade Center were targeting the very heart of America—not because of the buildings’ association with business or commerce, but because their location in lower Manhattan has long symbolized America’s noblest ideals."

So what mattered, or matters, most is not the trade towers but rather their location and what that location points to about Americans' self-perception, not what others take us to be.  Balmer is on to something worth thinking about both for our understanding of America and Americans and for our understanding of what grounds the sense that a location has sacred character.

only to say

I'm delighted and inspired by my Am Con students! 

Welcome back to another year of thinking and learning from each other.

Please do post those images and poems.

Back to School!

My facebook page and hallway conversations have been full of news of kids beginning kindergarten, middle school, high school.  A cousin reported that even in the digital age, two dozen, number 2 pencils had been sharpened in preparation for his kids' first day of school.

Today is the first day of classes here at St. Olaf.  Some would say finally.  Their friends have been on campuses and in classes for days, even weeks.  I'll just say, "It is time."  The late summer blog posts by AmCon students, the chance encounters in the hallways, the students dropping by with news of summer, the photocopies of assignments sitting on my desk: these are all signs.  So too the little skip in my breath as I think about entering a classroom filled with a dozen-and-a-half new, first year students.  Being the same space with the students is what makes the energy flow!

Looking for a 9/11 event?

Here's one in MN that looks hopeful: Minnesotans Standing Together

From their page:

Join Minnesotans from every walk of life at this special ceremony to remember the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Together we will honor the ideals of freedom and democracy, remember and lament our losses, and create hope.

Sunday, September 11, 2011
Minnesota State Capitol
St. Paul, MN
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Musical prelude beginning at 1:00

Leaders from more than 12 different faith communities will offer words of consolation and inspiration.

That Used to Be Us. . . and next

As we are approaching the tenth anniversary of September 11, we are also hearing and reading lots about what happened, the consequences, what changed.  Like so many Americans I have some memories of the day, though I have only seen glimpses of the actual events.  Frankly, I avoided watching the repeated showings of the tapes.  I've read some novels that have those events in the forefront of the plot or in the background.  Most commentators agree that the definitive book is yet to be written.

Among my most vivid memories is something my son, then 9 years old, said as the USA began to bomb in retaliation.  "At school they tell us that if someone is mad at you, you should try to find out why."  That statement came back to me several times last year as AmCon students talked about Tocqueville and their sense of America's place in the world and then again when Clara made that stunning statement, "I have no memory of the United States before 9/11."

What seems most important to me as we approach this anniversary can be derived from those two statements which each point us to the fundamental question: Who do we think we are?   What kind of people, that is what kind of nation, are we?  This is not merely a question about our role in geo-politics and the world economy; it is also a question of character and virtues.

This teaser about That Used to Be Us by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum suggests that they address this question.  Of course, they are a generation older than my son and his classmates, so they have a mid-20th century formative experience fueled by an expanding national morale and an expectation of progress, even if chastened by social unrest and assassinations.  (We remember the day JFK was shot as our parents remember Pearl Harbor and our children 9/11.)  The sub-title hints that there is both honesty and hope in the book: "How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back."  Doesn't that evoke our discussions about the American dream?

Northfield knowledge

Nlfd MN downtown, one of 20 USA neighborhoods that work
This 2004 article is now a bit out of date.  (Here's the whole list.) The post-office is likely to be closed in favor of a single facility elsewhere in town and there may be a few more empty storefronts.  The bike path is longer than it was eleven years ago.  The Riverfront, Saturday marketplace is new.  The Contended Cow is doing more live-music programing.

Nonetheless, overall the piece gives us a look at the ways in which the downtown contributes to community life in our small town: the businesses, the events, the people, even the parking.  I'm impressed that the author takes account of these multiple factors (physical, social, human, etc.) and their interactions.  If I were to be the one writing, I think I'd want to include a bit more about the library and emphasize the riverwalk a bit more.  These would not change the basic picture however.

Halloween . . . drag . . .

Already there is Halloween stuff for sale at Menards.  No doubt this is because there isn't much to buy for Labor Day and they don't really do school supplies.  This year I'm less interested in the use of pumpkins to mark the boundaries of land and more in the phenomenon of costumes.  Perhaps someone will want to dress up as a laborer for Halloween, rather than as a cowboy or a Disney Princess.  If so, Menards would be place to go for the outfit.  Or, to draw upon current use of the term, to buy the clothing for one's drag.

We are what we wear?  Yes or no.  Discuss.

Clothing is important in Ragtime, especially for Coalhouse, but not only for him.  Clothing is really important in Gay New York.  After all it is from this context that we get the term "drag."  AmCon students may recall my use of my own clothing as costumes last year during Week One as well as the clothing which Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere  wore in their portraits. All of us using clothing to signal something about our identity and expectations for behavior.

As we consider how America (and Americans) re-make themselves.  We'll do well to pay attention to clothing.

The transition into fall

Today I go off to the opening faculty meeting and turn the page on the calendar.  Linda Pastan leads the way with this lovely poem.

 

 September

by Linda Pastan

it rained in my sleep
and in the morning the fields were wet

I dreamed of artillery
of the thunder of horses

in the morning the fields were strewn
with twigs and leaves

as if after a battle
or a sudden journey

I went to sleep in the summer
I dreamed of rain

in the morning the fields were wet
and it was autumn

"September" by Linda Pastan, from Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998. © W.W. Norton & Company, 2009.