Gentrification

"What Happens When Your Hood is the Last Stop on the White Flight Express" by Taigi Smith was a really thought provoking essay.  I’m currently in an anthropology class and we discussed topics like gentrification as well as class, race and other terms used in this reading, so I was relieved to have this for our in class essay.

The definition Smith used in her essay was filled with a lot more emotion. It was interesting to see the differences in what she used and what I used in my anthro class. The part about having “imaginary bleach” being poured on communities really got to me. It reminded me of a lot of videos and readings I saw in my other class.  And that term yuppies, I learned it my class a couple of days before I got this reading.

I thought it was really eye opening that she felt like she related more to her Hispanic neighbors rather than her black neighbors that she mentioned in the end of the essay. She says she was in the same class as the Latinos and she wasn’t with her black neighbors. It’s just crazy how much class has to do with our interactions and relationships with each other, even when we have the same race.

I also liked how she brought up the term womanism, and talked about how much gentrification has affected woman. I actually didn’t have anything about that in my other class, so it was interesting to see. Her struggle with finding the right type of feminism reminded me of Durraj’s writing about how she struggled with the same issue.  Its kind of interesting that woman of all race deal with this issue of what really is feminism to them. The fact that she went back to her gentrified neighborhood to see if she could actually buy a place there was my favorite part. There are so many issues with class and race today that we are afraid to talk about.  Some people are in denial that these types of issues still exist. It was sad how she compared her feelings about this change with how the drunk man reacted to seeing her.

What's Really Going on in Antigua

                When you think of Antigua, you think about beautiful clear blue skies, breathe taking ocean views, luxurious hotels; the ideal vacation spot. However, Antigua isn't as well off as we think it is. In the essay A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid, we are exposed to sad truth. To be honest, I didn't know much about Antigua before reading this. My sister had some kind of credit issue at Brooklyn College and thought she had to go abroad to Antigua over the summer for a class, and that's when I knew a place called Antigua existed. We didn't end up going to Antigua but I remember seeing the pictures of it online and thinking, "Oh my god, this place looks amazing! It's so beautiful, the perfect vacation spot."
               I love the way this essay was written. It makes you feel as if you are actually there, like a typical tourist, only with a grumpy tour guide along with you. I never read anything written like this before and I think it was perfect for what she was trying to say. The way it makes your way through Antigua and see what she chooses you to see and think what she wants you to think really helps us to understand the point she is trying to make.I would have never thought that there was so much corruption going on there, and how little the government actually cares about its citizens. It really shocked me that the Prime Minster had the airport named after him and not a library or a school. The essay makes you face how ignorant we can be when we overlook significant details that are around us.Like the driver and the mansions.
              You can really see how angry she is with what is going on from where she is from and how mad she is at the people who come to visit that are almost always completely oblivious to what is going on in front of their eyes.I don't really understand what she says towards the end though. When she talks about how we are ugly when we are tourists and then goes on to describe how our hypothetical days go on. I wish the excerpt we got was longer because I wanted to know where she was going with that. The part about how the water from our toilets are most likely in the beautiful clear ocean disturbed me a bit. It gave me a second thought about going there. 

FINALLY, SOMETHING THAT RELATES TO ME.

            FINALLY, SOMETHING THAT RELATES TO ME. Darraj's, "It's Not An Oxymoron, The Search For Arab Feminism". When I saw this I was a little worried to what it was going to say because, first of all. We barely talk about all the misconceptions that are given to Arabs, Muslims and Women (Arab and Muslim women). I have no idea why this is. It sometimes feels like no one really wants to admit that after 9/11 there wasn't this messed up version of Islam being planted into people's head, and all these hate crimes and stereotypes. Okay, I sound little crazy but hey, it's a painful topic.
          When wearing a hijab, almost everyone knows that you are a Muslim, (Or Hindu...yeah, that assumption happened to me...), and its really tough. I always got questions like hey, what is that?, why do you dress for MEN?, why did your parents FORCE you to wear that?, why do people from where you're from want to KILL everyone?,why are you so VIOLENT?. The list can go on and on. The worst is when I see an article on Facebook from CNN, and I read the comments. Oh god, those comments... And the amount of people who agree with those hateful comments..... Whenever I read them, I would sit and really think about it. Wow... there's millions of people out there would look at me, and think all that about me. And its all false...and so far from the truth. Then I would rant about the ignorance to my friends and family and they'd give me that look of, ( I know, it sucks, but we can't really do anything), and I try to go to sleep and not be depressed. (A little personal but it relates to the reading)
       So yeah, seeing this in class, really meant a lot to me. Especially those comparisons Arab to Western practices. I'm not Arab, so I actually didn't know about the whole naming thing or some of the wedding traditions. But her arguments were really good, it was very convincing, and it was heart warming? ( Not sure what word to use) to see that everyone in class for the most part understood her points and agreed. I'm so used to hoping I disappear when in class we talk about 9/11 or woman in Islam or Islam in general. I was afraid to what people would say and how would I confront their comments.  But going back to the reading, I related to her struggle for her search. I felt like my idea of feminism was manipulated, and judged harshly. I also loved how she was a Christan Arab.
        I wish I could take that line from page 305, "The Muslim sisters believe that Islam gives women full rights but that the religion has been corrupted by men to suit their patriarchal agenda", can I just hang this somewhere in bold letters for everyone to see? Islam was the first religion to establish rights to women, the right to divorce, have a say in her marriage, own property from her parents, not be treated like property, have a say when there are accusations of her cheating, etc.Or the assumption that Muslims are violent, so during war they went crazy and killed everyone in sight. Again, completely false, there rules they had to follow. Do not commit treachery, deviate from the right path, mutilate dead bodies kill children, women, or aged men, harm or burn trees, destroy buildings, destroy an enemy’s flock, unless you use it for your food, and when you pass people who have devoted their lives to monastic services leave them alone. Very violent, right?
       Okay, I could write books about all the misconceptions about Islam and addressing them. Sadly, they are still out there. I saw a sign the other day, right before you enter the subway station in Manhattan saying "Islam Hates Jews, It's Written in the Quran!!" Sighhhh... I hope we all read pieces like Darraj's but about other backgrounds and their struggle of stereotypes, it will help with the ignorance we have towards each other, and make a better world. ( Wow, that sounded really cheesy, but the ignorance needs to be addressed.) I think this class really helped to learn to question what's given to you. And think critically, and really think about whats being said and make sure it's from a legit source. Don't generalize or assume thing. I hope that everyone else took that from this class as well. There were other pieces that spoke to me but only 2 posts per month, like the film we saw in class. I love how thought provoking all the readings are to be honest. I just realized how long my posts are...sorry

American Born Chinese-Chinese Born American

             American Born Chinese is a graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang. I came across it years ago when my sister had to read it for one of her class at Brooklyn College. She told me to read it like every other book she's read, and I gave in. (Mostly because there were pictures, and I loved easy reads before.)  As I began reading the book, I realized how related it was to my life. His teacher mispronounced his name, and assumed he was an immigrant from China. As well as dealing with stereotypes from my peers. I started to think about all the times that happened and continues to happen to me today."So when did you come to America?" ( I was born in Brooklyn...) "Wow Rafia, you're so different from all the other Pakistani Muslims I met" ( Worst compliment ever)
           At the time when I first read the book, I didn't really think about how much I was transforming myself like Jin was. But those examples from the book aren't from the reading we were supposed to do for class. Which made it hard for me to talk about the book, because I kept thinking everyone else read the whole thing and knew what happened. I really had to distance myself from the rest of the book. ANYWAYS, that feeling of hatred towards Wei-Chen. I see that ALL the time, for different backgrounds. Whether it's from my friends towards people of their same background or, even me. It's such a touchy and confusing topic. Especially when you are growing up, you want to be accepted and want to fit in. And seeing someone who fits into the stereotypes causes anger because we want to forget about that part of us. However, there has to be a middle ground, and asking yourself if that's really what you want to do, and not something you want to do because of others. (Embracing culture, or being more "American")
              Today it's save to say, that I'm proud of where I'm from, and I'm not as afraid or embarrassed as I was before. But I think I was uncomfortable about my background because of the all of stereotypes about Pakistanis/Muslims. I don't want people looking at me and automatically assuming that I'm a conservative and my parents hate me because I'm a girl, and other completely stupid assumptions. I felt like if I embraced my background, it would represent all those negative assumptions towards who I was, and people would have that in the back of their mind while talking to me. And I didn't want that. First impressions are important, you know?
             Okay, my writing is getting a little unorganized... One thing that fascinated me was the details about this graphic novel I didn't notice before. I read this book a bunch of times in the past, and even when I looked over it for English class, I didn't notice he changed his dumplings to a sandwich. It seems like such a insignificant detail, but it definitely ties into the theme of him "transforming."I guess I overlooked it. Also, the title. I named this blog that because I really liked the play on words. Usually we say, someone is a Chinese born American, not an American born Chinese. This is important because towards the end of the novel he embraces his culture. Which kind of relates to me as well, in how I wasn't born in Pakistan, but it's still a part of me. 
             In class, we really analyzed slides and looking into more depth to why certain things were depicted this way and why things were said that way. I definitely learned to really pay attention to what I'm reading and look for things like that while I'm reading. Even if it's just for fun and not an assignment. It absolutely helps the reading experience and gives another level of understanding. So that's one of the many things I took out of this class. Okay, I felt like I had a lot to say and it kind of exploded all over this post. But in short, I LOVE this graphic novel and I will continue to recommend it to my friends :)

My Thoughts on Coraline and Graphic Novels

We were assigned to read Coraline, both the original text and the graphic novel. When I saw this on the syllabus, I was pretty excited. I know there was a movie about it and it is a very popular book.
When reading the book, it was better than I expected. My sister always goes on and on about many books, but I didn't believe her when she spoke about this book, because she loves so many.
I found that I slightly related and loved her character. I get bored A LOT, and throughout the reading, she was always bored and wanted to explore. I love her character because whenever her parents, or some other adult warned her not to do something or go somewhere, she willingly would do the opposite of what everyone warns her to do. This is great because I'm just as curious as she is.
I felt bad about her character though. Her parents always seem to be busy with work, and she wants to spend some time with them. She doesn't seem to like the food they are feeding her as well. It's fascinating to see an alternate reality though, where everything is perfect, yet ... it's not. I think we all want to escape our boring daily lives sometimes, but we need to remember to appreciate the life we have as well, and I think that's what this book is trying to say.
I enjoyed reading the graphic novel,as well as the original text, but I liked the original text more because the way I imagined the book was different from the graphic novels images. I like picturing every word the author says in my own mind, and remembering chapters that way. Even though it was simply written and  there wasn't much description used in the text, I could easily picture what the author was trying to say. It's a children's book, but very creepy. I really enjoyed reading these couple of pages from the book, I will be finding it in the library and reading the rest.
I can't wait to read American Born Chinese, a graphic novel I've already read. My next blog post will be about that.

Racism or Xenophobia?

I'm not really sure what I should be writing, since this is for my English class, but I figure this does have to do with a class discussion we had. I don't want to mention names, or attack anyone, this is merely my opinion.

The other day in class, we were discussing a piece of writing from, "Class and the politics of writing" from Remembered Rapture. It was a well-written piece from an African American woman, where she stated, one way or another, that the reason why publishers refused to publish her work was because of her race, gender and the controversy of her writing.  However, another student claimed she was "playing the race card" and that maybe "her writing wasn't all that good". 

 A debate sprung in class, this work was published fairly recently, and it came to a shock to some students that racism still existed today. After much debate, our professor told us to bring back articles proving whether or not racism still exists in 2014.

There were many articles discussed proving that racism, in fact, still does exist. However, a student claimed it wasn't racism, it was xenophobia, an intense fear of people from other countries. Apparently, the reason why people who were white had priority over people of color in a hospital, even though their injuries were more severe, was because of this phobia.

 I honestly do not want to attack any student. I just wish I spoke up in class. Sadly, participation isn't something I'm comfortable with, and I get REALLY shy at times.( I know I need to work on this, sometimes I don't get nervous though)

I feel that at least in a hospital or any kind of medical environment, where people are in pain, one way or another, xenophobia would be the LAST thing a medical practitioner would/should have. 

I believe when someone is in pain, or needs help, a natural human response is to help, no matter what their background is; being "afraid" of someone who's impaired is ridiculous. There's a clear difference between being afraid of someone and hating someone because of where they are from. Saying stereotypical comments, and hurtful judgements about someone's background does not display fear, it shows your intolerance, nonacceptance and hate.