Do The Right Thing - Analytical & Personal Response

In Richard Wright's "How Bigger Was Born," he explained how there were multiple Biggers, or different parts of his personality within the main character. He said, of Bigger No. 2, "he tells us that we were fools not to get what we wanted while we were alive in this world. We would listen and silently agree. We longed to believe and act as he did, but we were afraid" (435). Bigger No. 2 did not want to be a bystander in a society where everyone conformed to the same values and norms. He wanted his people to fight for their rights and rise against the norms - he wanted his people to get what they wanted in life, but his people were too afraid. Bigger No. 2 did not mind using violence and suggested something similar to what Malcolm X said, "what we have to do is what they did" (258), implying that blacks should rise against the whites and finally fight to live the lives they deserved. Bigger No. 2 and Buggin' Out from Do The Right Thing are similar in the ways they wanted change. Buggin' Out wanted to boycott Sal's Famous Pizzeria because he did not believe it represented his neighborhood or his race well. The neighborhood was multicultural, but the one place everyone went in the neighborhood for pizza and good quality food was not. Bigger No. 2 wanted to fight against the oppression of the Black Belt in Chicago by building up the morale of his people. They both wanted a chance at equality and integration for their people; they just went about it in violent or unnecessary ways that were looked down upon.

I think the conflict between all of the races was the most prominent part of Do The Right Thing. The scene in which one person from each race expresses a slew of cruel insults to another race was astounding to me. All of those people from different races - Korean, White-Italian, Black, Puerto Rican - were living in the same area and yet not many of them had decided to put aside their differences. I thought at some point in time, they would have come to an agreement in some way. But the white men were still serving the rest of the races food and the Puerto Ricans were angry at Radio Raheem's music and Da Mayor was infuriated by the Korean shopkeepers who did not have his favorite beer. The only ones who seemed remotely centered in terms of race were Mookie and Jade. Mookie was working for white men, had a baby with a Puerto Rican woman, and did not seem to care about having a Korean couple was living near him. Jade was happily optimistic about everything she did and did not feel strange about talking to Sal or living in their neighborhood. Mookie and Jade were the ones who found that, rationally, they were able to live in harmony with the others in the neighborhood. Even after Mookie assisted in the trashing and burning of Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, he still went back and asked for his money. But Sal did not punch him or call him names; he gave Mookie double the money he had earned. In the end, these two were the ones who realized what it meant to do the right thing – they had to live and accept each other in order to live a life worth living.

Two Societies - Document 2: The Chicago Plan

Reverend James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) drafted the Chicago Plan which explains how too many blacks with hopes of new opportunities and freedoms went to Chicago. This migration caused Chicago to become segregated. This finally led to Chicago pushing blacks into ghettoes and the slums. Chicago became less of a "promised land" and the South became filled with more opportunities.

2. How did the SCLC distinguish the problems of black residents of a Norhtern city like Chicago from those in a Southern city like Birmingham?

The difference between the situation in Birmingham and the situation in Chicago was that in Birmingham, the only problem that was in effect was segregation. So the SCLC was able to put forth action in order to desegregate the city. But in Chicago, the problems were more complex. By having all of these black people coming to the north, they are putting Chicago in a state of economic exploitation. Bevel said, "Every condition exists simply because someone profits by its existence. This economic exploitation is crystallized in the SLUM," (6). Bevel realized that the problem with Chicago was too difficult to fix with what strategies they had. Chicago was not as badly segregated as Birmingham, but their problem was not an easy fix - they were not able to use desegregation - they were going to have Chicago staff "come to see this as a system of internal colonialism," in order to integrate and fix Chicago.

Beloved - Memory, Rememory, and the Power of the Past

In Chapter 9 of Beloved, Sethe takes a trip to the Clearing, where Baby Suggs used to preach, for spiritual guidance. Baby Suggs had been there for Sethe when she needed her after Denver was born, and she remembered how Baby Suggs had been so caring with her and had acted almost like a mother toward Sethe when she was vulnerable. Sethe knew Baby Suggs and her hands well enough to know that when she was being strangled, it was not done by the ghost of Baby Suggs. She thought, "Baby Suggs had not choked her as first she thought... Sethe remembered the touch of those fingers that she knew better than her own," (115). Sethe comes to the conclusion that it was something from the 'other side.' She ponders, "But for eighteen years she had lived in a house full of touches from the other side. And the thumbs that pressed her nape were the same. Maybe that was where it (the ghost) had gone to," (116). Sethe remembers the feeling of Baby Suggs' fingers, knowing they were not hers that choked her. Yet, it was a spirit of some kind. Sethe has a rememory of all the times she had been in the presence of the ghost baby, and so she knows what that should feel like. The past can be reawakened by parallel happening that occur and allow for the remembrance of it in the present.

Emerson, 'Self-Reliance' - Society

An individual's place in society must be a place that is true to themselves and defines who they are. Emerson says, "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude," (23). He is saying that people should always stay true to the core of who they are, even in times that society is overbearing. The society is the majority of the people around the individual which conforms to the values of the mass. People should never let others define their place in society because it is their decision to choose who they want to be and who they want to be known as. When the society tries to define who you are, there is a problem because it is for the individual to determine who they are. The society is that which can be manipulative and controlling; they will mold the individual into what they want. But the individual must fight back with their knowledge of the world and of themselves to be fully independent and great.

9-11 Controversies

The article, Obama implores minister to call off Quran-burning, raises the controversy of exploiting Islam as a religion in the United States. A minister in Florida has decided that on September 11, his church will brun Qurans as a cermonious remembrance of the 9th anniversary. Obama's address of this problem touches on the base of America: "... this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance," therefore, what the minister is intending to do would be against what America stands for. The Constitution gives everyone the right to their own religion, and so people who are given the right to be Muslim in America are having their rights violated. This Quran-burning would only be destructive, it would not solve anything - the minster is not making any problem better by completing this task. Glenn Beck said "burning the Quran is like burning the flag or the Bible - something people can do in the United States, but shouldn't," so what the minister is doing is not illegal persay, but it is definitely something that is punishable in every other possible way when done in America. I don't think that this would solve anything; it's a pointless act that will be regretted by many in years to come.

Thomas Paine - The American Crisis

Paine again discusses America in terms of their relationship with Great Britain. We are expected to be independent from them and therefore we must remain independent. He is saying that Americans are the people who try their hardest to fight for change. "I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection," (53). So, the American must also be optimistic and keep their chin up whenever negativity pulls them down. "It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf; and we ought to guard equally against both," (53).  The American is expected to be agile, sly yet brutish enough to kill in war as well as in any terms of defense. Pain argues that we are all the same: "If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon the other," (53). I think that here, Paine is referencing to the Declaration of Independence in the sense that he is alluding to "all men are created equal." Above all, I feel that Paine is speaking a lot more than just about Great Britain; I think that in being all of the qualities he listed, Americans are expected to defend their ideas in times of threat, but equally willing to change in those times.