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Annotated Biblography
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2. Summary/Significance of Material
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Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)
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LIST OF THINGS I HAVE READ
Miss-Representation Documentary
Suey Park Interview
Convo with Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
***DAILY TWITTER USAGE: follow me if you want to see—sometimes my twitter can be sporadic but there are some rants=gems in there. @narkeleptic also you can click on the tweet
People that I follow—where I get a lot of my ideas
@brokeymcpoverty
@heavenrants
@stopbeingfamous
@suey_park
@marclamonthill
@rolandmartin
**I also just enjoy engaging my friends from back home in their thoughts or tweets. Now that I am going back at my twitter I see that I have recently been talking about Real Housewives of Atlanta QUITE A BIT—so please excuse my addiction to the franchise! Ha!
***College News Issues from 1982: archived from the college’s special collections digital archive
*I think that the historical nature of these documents allows us to see the intergenerational cycle of Bryn Mawr—maybe I should try to find some other archives this summer? I also liked these because they were not as “normative” as the bi-college news, however always need to be aware that these opinions are still being us a limited and provincial scope—as I am sure the staff was predominately white.
“The Secret Lives of Black Males” by TA-NEHISI COATES http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-secret-lives-of-inner-city-black-males/284454/
“America’s Future Racial Make-Up: Will Today’s Hispanics be Tomorrow’s Whites”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/america_s_future_racial_makeup_will_today_s_hispanics_be_tomorrow_s_whites.html
“We Can’t Eat Lupita’s Black Beauty Try As We Might”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/we-cant-eat-lupitas-black-beauty-try-as-we-might
Beyonce Interview: This isn’t the original one that I saw, but her discussion about the making of “Partition” how it was organic/spontaneous and the fear she felt after when she listened to her words. Very conscious of her language and the image she was giving herself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP4FUjRoxA
I also frequent the blog: www.blackgirldangerous.org A LOT—I honestly don’t agree with her a lot of the time, but I just enjoy her writing and authenticity.
Katie says that I should give my list of sites that I go to pretty much every day. She always tells me that the first time she saw me do this so quickly, she was amazed haha! They are pretty much the sites that I use to go on at MSNBC—some of them are crazy republican sites aka my favorites! It is difficult for me to remember specific articles that I read, but these sites give me regular info on the world but also different perspectives on current discourse in the public sphere.
www.salon.com
www.theatlantic.com
www.thedailybeast.com
www.thedailycaller.com
www.huffingtonpost.com
www.jezebel.com I have grown to really dislike jezebel but I still go on just to make me angry
www.gawker.com both gawker and jezebel have great comment sections—sometimes I just read conversations instead of the article if I am already familiar with the topic
www.colorlines.com
www.autostraddle.com
***It is important for me to note that these sites often have links to articles in other places and I find many articles/opinions through re-tweets on twitter.
Through the list I am realizing the temporality of voices on the internet, who has authority, who is given merit—this might be an interesting topic to discuss in relation to identity, but also accessibility of navigating the internet.
"Taking It Personally" by Ann Berlak & Sekani Moyenda
Overall Feelings:
I really enjoyed the use of narrative to act as a catalyst for larger dialogue by both authors. I guess as I say this I am thinking that this would be every author’s intention, but given their active use of “autobiography” I believe that this allows the reader to relate to either Ann or Sekani on a deeper level. Even if the reader falls somewhere in between these two juxtaposing perspectives, I believe that their honesty and illumination of their adaptive unconscious in conjunction with their conscious efforts to “undo” racist pedagogy is very genuine (gave me perspective--really liked it).
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Moyenda, Sekani, and Ann Berlak. "Chp. 1, Sekani: How I Got My "Black Attitude" Problem." Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College. By Sekani Moyenda. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. 17-33. Print.
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Moyenda, Sekani, and Ann Berlak. "Chp. 2, Ann: How I Developed and 'Obduracy of Tone'." Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College." By Ann Berlak. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. 17-33. Print.
"Taking It Personally" by Ann Berlak & Sekani Moyenda
Overall Feelings:
I really enjoyed the use of narrative to act as a catalyst for larger dialogue by both authors. I guess as I say this I am thinking that this would be every author’s intention, but given their active use of “autobiography” I believe that this allows the reader to relate to either Ann or Sekani on a deeper level. Even if the reader falls somewhere in between these two juxtaposing perspectives, I believe that their honesty and illumination of their adaptive unconscious in conjunction with their conscious efforts to “undo” racist pedagogy is very genuine (gave me perspective--really liked it).
-----------------------------------------------------
Moyenda, Sekani, and Ann Berlak. "Chp. 1, Sekani: How I Got My "Black Attitude" Problem." Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College. By Sekani Moyenda. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. 17-33. Print.
-----------------------------------------------------
Moyenda, Sekani, and Ann Berlak. "Chp. 2, Ann: How I Developed and 'Obduracy of Tone'." Taking It Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College." By Ann Berlak. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. 17-33. Print.
Politics of Difference (due 2/25)
Politics of Difference
Young, Iris M. "Chapter 12: The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference."Feminism/Postmodernism. Ed. Linda J. Nicholson. New York City: Routledge, 1990. 300-23. Print.
Summary:
Iris Marion Young argument surrounding community in relation to her ideal of politics of difference deconstructs our understood relationship between society and the individual. Young argues that community acts as an ideal that relies on the act of suppressing and excluding difference. Young uses various writers to supplement her argument, I specifically enjoyed her discussion of Descartes and how modern philosophy is preoccupied with unity of consciousness and immediate presence of self. I think that we see that within a capitalist patriarchal democratic society—the society holds greater significance than the individual. Young also states that our desire to define the individual is related to what we are not. Her ideal city relies on a politics of difference in which the individual is able to retain and prevail in one’s lived experience, identity (unencumbered self?). However I do not know if this would be able to exist as a collective, cohesive society due to our economic and political structure that does not provide an ACTUAL safety net for the individual. I do think this might be able to exist in micro-level communities… or affinity groups?
MANTRAFESTO (due 2/11)
MANTRAFESTO
Alex. "Feminist Online Spaces | Building & Linking Principled Sites in Collaboration." Feminist Online Spaces. Feminist Online Spaces, 14 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. http://www.feministonlinespaces.com/.
Summary:
Although we are not really pulling any information from this piece, the literary style and language infrastructure along with Anne's use of it in our Critical Feminist Studies Class has been very influential in my thinking and writing. I have interpreted mantrafesto’s as a declarative and authoritative stream of consciousness style of writing, however its fragmented nature allows for more language or voices to enter this narrative. I am not sure if that makes ANY SENSE...?
I think of it as the conversation we had about feminism all last semester. We all were talking about the same topic but could never come up with a cohesive definition. I believe this was due to our different backgrounds and orientations to feminism. At first this was very frustrating, however I grew to appreciate and even embrace the accepted and respected difference in our classroom. I saw our cohort as a BIG MANTRAFESTO: as we were constantly contributing new voices/silences/ideologies/thoughts/emotions relating to feminism into our collective conversations, but also individual consciousness'.
The Persistence of Writing (due 2/11)
The Persistence of Writing
Burkdall, Thomas, PhD. "The Persistence of Writing." EduCause Review Online. EduCause, 28 May 2009. Web. 7 Feb. 2014. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/persistence-writing.
Summary:
I found this piece because the author, Thomas Burkdall, was acknowledged by the author of the mantrafesto. I found his piece interesting because of my recent thoughts on academia’s tradition of how was interpret, validate, and receive knowledge as students. I also enjoyed his acknowledgement of multimedia, and its ability to add dimensions into one’s work—either to provide clarity and/or add more complexity to one’s work. He also discusses memory, stating that it is “bri-colage of memories and meanings”—this also made me think of my way of thinking… I realized last semester that many of my convictions and beliefs are strong, but also subject to change do to the constant knowledge I am receiving—not only in school but also lived experience. I am a bri-colage, a collection of art/work from a diverse range of influences, but I feel that often times I am not able to express myself in this way at Bryn Mawr. (Only with Anne!) I am questioning the way we measure and validate intellect and “academic” thought?
Cosmopolitan Canopy (due 2/11)
The Cosmopolitan Canopy
Elijah Anderson
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , Vol. 595, Being Here and Being There: Fieldwork Encounters and Ethnographic Discoveries (Sep., 2004) , pp. 14-31
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4127607
Summary:
Elijah Anderson’s book Cosmopolitan Canopies is an in-depth exploration of race-relations within the ever-evolving urban landscape of Philadelphia’s Center City district. As a longtime resident of the city, in neighborhoods such as : West Philadelphia, Rittenhouse Square, and Chestnut Hill, he considers himself to an “observing participant” given that he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork while still being an inhabitant of these communities as an engaged citizen, and sociologist.
Historically, Philadelphia has had a relatively large Black/African-American population, but also considered to be incredibly racialized given the make-up of distinct racially/ethnically segregated neighborhoods, which become cohesive inclusive communities. Overtime Anderson has seen these neighborhoods infrastructure change, but also the inhabitants of these spaces along with it. His observations are able to provide research and illustrations as to how these people engage one another across racial lines. Anderson specifically notes that Philadelphia, along with the rest of the country, has become increasingly diverse along due to laws and legislation advocating for equal rights across racial lines, but also policies that advocate for tolerance such as affirmative action.
Although these policies were intended to secure racial equality, they have also been able to promote ideals of goodwill and civility, in which Anderson argues have allowed for “Cosmopolitan Canopies” to emerge. Throughout the book Anderson is able to provide a spectrum of these canopies in order to illustrate the universal norm of racial tolerance that has been institutionalized in these spaces, however we see that through his ethnographic fieldwork that racial stereotypes are still very much present within these interpersonal interactions and the held-beliefs of Philadelphians. In conclusion, Elijah Anderson’s book argues that although these racial tensions still linger within urban areas that these “canopies” provide a space for a diverse spectrum of people to interact with one another—thus creating more tolerance and civility amongst city dwellers leading to a more integrated metropolis.
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