A Cogitative Countenance

     After reading the majority of the ”Life of Isaac Mason as a Slave,” I am astonished.  I had previously thought that I knew more than enough information about the lives that slaves led, but this narrative enhanced my understanding of the way slaves were treated in society.  Although the author does not always define who is a slave and who is white or in charge, the awful personal experiences that he depicts clearly show that he was a slave.  As a child and young teen, he was a house slave and was always standing by his mistress.  It was shocking to see that he was treated just as an object and not as a person, for as when the mistress died, he was just sold off to another master.  He was whipped and punished for the simplest of things, such as just going off with some friends; which was not even an attempt to escape.
     A difference between Isaac Mason’s life and Huckleberry Finn, was the escape of the two slaves.  Isaac’s escape was planned out and executed in a precise manner, whereas Jim just seemed to go missing one day, and was fortunate enough to run into Huck who helped him escape.The way that Isaac is constantly being followed and chased and how he mentions having to be “safe for a while” is very similar to Huck Finn.  Isaac Mason had to hide often, which is similar to how Jim has to hide and stay down low in the raft while they are traveling.  It is saddening to see how these people had to always be on the run, and could never feel safe or at home.

     Before I commence reading some of these slave narratives, I have the general impression that they will expose the problems with slavery.  These slaves who were lucky enough to learn to read and write show how miserable life as a slave was, and try to humanize slaves, surely against their white masters’ wills.  By giving the mass number of slaves a voice in the country, these narratives help to eventually gain freedom for all.  This voice reaches out to many Americans and gives them the sense that slavery is wrong.   I am looking forward to learning even more about this, and seeing how the truth shown through these authors’ eyes ties into our class reading of Huckleberry Finn.

     Racism seems to be a constant force in America.  I don’t think that we are driven by prejudice (although a few people may be), but it is more of just a presence.  I recently watched a “Primetime: Basic Instincts” show on ABC 7that exposed racism.  The producers placed hidden cameras inside taxi cabs, and instructed the drivers, who were actually hired actors, to make extremely racial slurs.  It was shocking to see that many of the passengers would agree with the driver, and even add more severe comments directed towards a certain group of people.  Very few people seemed offended by the remarks, and the program only showed one example of a woman standing up to the driver and defending a racial group.
     The show went on further to stage a fight between a couple in a park.  Over 60 people just walked on by when the couple was white, but 15 people did step in to help.  When the producers had African-American actors stage a fight, only 6 out of about 75 people tried to help, and most of them just told the couple to take it somewhere else.  This shows that people make generalizations about certain races, and that prejudice is certainly present today.  It is a scary fact especially when faced with these two scenarios; especially to see that racism that existed back in Mark Twain’s time is still carried on today.

     I was one of those few who went ahead and wrote my second satire blog before the assignment was posted to Wasserman’s blog, and I felt bad that I didn’t do what everyone else did, so here it is.

     I found the clip from the Colbert Report quite funny, but the point it was making was clearer and came across stronger to me.  As I watched I was a little confused as to what was going on and all, but upon watching it a second time it struck me how realistic it all was.  I found it very interesting how he used the statistics of how 56% of Americans did not want to go to war in Iraq to begin with, and 70% of Americans were unhappy with how President Bush is handling the situation.  He comes straight out to make this point and others similar to it, and this is why I would consider this satire.  He taking the truth and adding humor, but still remaining true to these startling statistics and facts about the nation.
     He is basically just stating the facts, making them clear (although it might help if he talked a little slower so they could actually sink in), and adding bits of humor and jokes here and there.  I think the position that the character is trying to promote is anti-war, because he states that reinstating the draft would add to war efforts, but more importantly would cause an uprising against the administration here at home in America.

     The in class reading today about the Iraq Study Group was very effective at getting at some of the current key points in our nation’s foreign issues.  There were some new topics brought up in our discussion, such as the connection between Halliburton and Dick Cheney, and also how the U.S. is spending about a billion dollars a day to fight this war.  Two [1][2] Halliburton Watch websites that I found really show some corruption and problems that are going on.  It is scary to see how the government is handling such a vital process of trying to help Iraq.

The biggest windfall in the invasion of Iraq has most certainly gone to the oil services and logistics company Halliburton . The company, which was formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, had revenue of over $8 billion in contracts in Iraq in 2003 alone. And while Halliburton ’s dealings in Iraq have been dogged everywhere by scandal – including now a criminal investigation into overcharging by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root for gas shipped into Iraq – Vice President Cheney manages to be doing quite well from the deal. He owns $433,000 unexercised Halliburton stock options worth more than $10 million dollars.  But Halliburton ’s history of benefiting from government largesse goes back a ways. From 1962 to 1972 the Pentagon paid the company tens of millions of dollars to work in South Vietnam, where they built roads, landing strips, harbors, and military bases from the demilitarized zone to the Mekong Delta.

     It was also very interesting to see how expansive the intricacy is with many issues surrounding the war.  The Iraq Study Group’s suggestions about dealing with both the external diplomatic situation, as well as with the internal situation show that the Iraq war is more complex than most Americans ever imagined.  With the underlying religious aspect, and the deals between nations for troops, and so many more aspects in play, it is very difficult for the United States to just withdraw from Iraq.  I agree with the ISG’s recommendation of having the U.S. troops focus more on helping the Iraqi troops get in control and be an effective force.  I think that this would be the only way to remove our troops successfully without much further conflict, and without chaos and extreme problems in Iraq.  However, the diplomatic and religious conditions are much harder to solve.  And as for the dispute between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, it seems that there will never be a solution that can be employed by an outside force such as the United States.

     I recently found a video online that has been supposedly banned from MTV, because it makes a point.

“Faithless Bombs”

     The point that I got out of it was that Americans are just standing by, while this extreme war and fighting is going on.  What do you think?  How does this link into our discussion in AMH, and would you consider this satirical?

     Just going onto the CNN.com homepage showed me four links directly including racism (along with news of Lindsay Lohan’s one week of sobriety of course).  The headlines Blacks don’t feel welcome in some towns, How serious is racial bias, and Are we ready for a black president? cover the main page.  I think this alone shows that there is still much racism in the United States today.
     One of the most direct and informative things on the website, was the racism poll.  It states that many Americans, black and white, say that racism is a lasting problem in the U.S., and they also say that they see many racist people around them.  To me, it sounds like some of these people are racist themselves, but want to protect themselves and will not admit to it.  Come to think of it, not too many people will admit to being racist or discriminative against anyone when asked.  However, this does not make sense to me, because it is logical to assume that these people will not admit to being racist because they know that racism is a bad thing, and they want to hide it.  Why, even though they know it is bad and wrong, do such people still stay with their discriminative ways?  We have to wonder if racism will ever go away.  And with people hiding their racism, and dealing with it themselves, it only manifests itself deeper into that person, causing racism to be a lasting problem in the country.
     Since so many of my classmates commented on this article, I will choose to be different and review this recent trial.  A black trash collector was convicted of raping and murdering a white fashion writer.  During jury deliberations, many racial remarks were being thrown about, and at one point it got so intense that two jurors had to be separated.

The statements clearly indicate that these jurors were racially biased against the defendant before deliberations ever started.

It is bad enough that there are racist people in the world, let alone appointing those people to juries which are supposed to be unbiased in all manors.

According to the affidavits, filed by jurors identified only as Juror A, Juror B and Juror C, racist comments included snide remarks from a white female juror about a black female juror’s hairstyle and questions about her educational background; a white female juror commenting that she was afraid of McCowen, saying “the big black guy” was staring at “us”; and a black male juror’s comments that he did not like other blacks because “look at what they are capable of.”

     Seeing such comments against another person based on race is a sight that we shouldn’t see today.  However, it is difficult to remove something that has been around for so long.  What I mean by this, is racism and these ideas have been around for centuries.  The female juror’s remark about the educational background of another black juror relates back to times of slavery, when it was illegal for a slave to read and write.  And for years beyond slavery, black people still received sub-standard education in segregated schools, and this idea has stayed around, and is still acknowledged by some.

Someone has some serious blogging issues….

Hey, yeah, I’m blogging.  It’s awesome.  I’ve been blogging all morning.  You should be blogging.

Just a random distraction on YouTube of course.

And here is some more random fun to keep you busy.  This is really funny, it literally took be about 15 tries to pass the Idiot Test.

     Why is satire so popular?  I can provide one main answer.  Satire is often used in a comedic medium, which attracts all people to it.  And to add to that attraction, what is being made fun of is real.  I think that it is a great medium in which to expose social problems, because so many people are attracted to the comedic aspect, but within all of the jokes, there is a deeper meaning.  I think it’s great.
     Such an example of this is how I personally wanted to go see the Borat movie, because it seems extremely funny.  However, when reviewing certain aspects about the movie closer, you see that it really reveals problems with racism and other social problems in the U.S. today.  I recently viewed a Primetime or 20/20 program on ABC, and it explained how what was included in the Borat movie was actually true.  The non-satiristic program went on further to prove this, by placing hidden cameras inside of Las Vegas taxis, and having the cab drivers make vicious slurs against a certain social group and seeing how the passengers would react.  Most of them agreed with the drivers, and elaborated their own feelings, which turned out to be extremely hateful and prejudice.  This just goes to show that satire is realistic comedy.