Exploring the Color Line: Chicago's South Side
Read the essay and view the attached photo essay in Mother Jones Magazine. Then write a paragraph response in which you connect issues discussed in this article to many of the issues of racial boundaries that we read about and discussed in class in the past few weeks.
You many want to write about A Raisin in the Sun, Our America, or any of the articles and poems we read. You might also consider the images we discussed such as The Great Migration series from Jacob Lawrence or the photographs in 12 Million Black Voices.
Please sign your post with your first name and class period.
posted by Charlotte Jacobs at
7:22 PM
8 Comments:
Lily Z.
2.3.09
Period 8.9
*Exploring the Color Line*
Dreams From My Father is about racial boundaries, stereotypes, and racism. The essay reminds me of the racial boundaries report from class. The neighborhood in the Dreams From my Father, at first, is very integrated place and a place of hope for the authors father. When the author talks about how both Caucasian and African American children had play dates together, his father says that all the blacks have to do is give whites a chance and be patient. This is similar to the situation in A Raisin in the Sun, where the white neighborhood isn't giving the African American Family a chance to get to know them, and just not wanting something different in their neighborhood. The Younger family is being stereotyped into something bad by the white community. The essay also reminds me of" "White" real estate. Before the hero's house is in a all black neighborhood, and now she lives in an all white neighborhood. When she thinks of home, she thinks of the all black neighborhood. It is like a dividing line between two worlds. The image of the neighborhood in the essay is similar of what one would picture with Ida B. Wells; with liquor stores, as well as gangs, an all black neighborhood, and guns. Chicago has made progress from its original... racism, but in some areas, there are still an all race neighborhood that is stereotyped as "ghetto".
By
Anonymous, at 7:23 PM
They are celebrating the fact that they don't have to live in the proects anymore is making them happy. They don't want to do anything that might put them back n the position that they came from. While being cautios they are celebrating
Jonathan K.
3.4.09
Jacobs 3-4
By
Anonymous, at 8:35 AM
In this article a nice neighborhood turns into a bit of a ghetto after a few years. It started when black families moved in and white families moved out. Slowly it became like the projects. These started being wonderful and nice, but then it became a neighborhood of gangs and drug dealers. Somehow such transformations must be prevented.
By
Anonymous, at 1:38 PM
Well this story really reminds me to one verse in that song that we listened to. The verse goes like this: Across the lines who would dare to go under the bridge over the tracks that separates whites from blacks. When I read that their family was the second African American family to live in a white neighborhood I thought of that verse because it sys who would dare to go under the bridge over the tracks and obviously that family went under the bridge and over the tracks, which is good! I also was shocked about how the neighborhood changed in 5 years just like that. So it was pretty interesting.
Sabrina
03/04/09
Period 8-9
By
Anonymous, at 2:24 PM
"Dreams From My Father" talks about racial boundaries and racism. It reminds me of "Across the Lines" by Tracy Chapman and "Chicago Still Trying to Break Racial Boundaries" Article from the New York Times. In the first paragraph it says that the white residents would leave (White Flight)as the blacks moved in. In "A Raisin in the Sun" the Younger family was going to move to a neighborhood where whites live. A real estate guy comes to there apartment and tells them to move so they don't get hurt by any angry people (White people). I enjoyed reading this but I did think it was sad.
Paul
Humanities 3-4
3/8/09
By
Paul, at 1:32 PM
Dreams From My Father's beginning was all happy and the family with a naive father moved into a new house in a white neighborhood on the south side. Their all happy but then things turn sour, the white people start moving out and blacks who want to move in have to pay for overpriced houses. This reminds me of 'White" real estate because the white families didn't want to be the first to sell or have blacks in their neighborhood. It also reminds me of A Raisin in the Sun because Lindner and his committee were going to pay a lot of money just so the younger's couldn't live in their "perfect" neighborhood. I feel a lot of people should just get over these things since the other person's skin offends/makes you uncomfortable. Its not like they don't think differently than you,talk differently, or act any differently, We are all the same human beings and i don't see why some idiots ruin that idea and cause discrimination.
jeff 8-9
By
Jeff, at 2:22 PM
Ivana Jacobs 8-9
I compared crickets and "American history", because the girl in american history and the boy in Crickets are sort of the same but in different ways. Maybe the boy in crickets wants to stay in his box.The girl in american history doesnt know how to get out of hers with her mom and dad. THe boys dad wants him to be more Vietmanise but h really doesnt want to. And the girl just wants to be normal american not get pregnant at age 16-19. they are same in alot of ways.
By
Anonymous, at 4:14 PM
Ive compared crickets and Sylvia's story. The two characters are Bills dad and Sylvia's mom. They both want there kids to be more Vietemes or Mexican but there children just want to be American.
By
Liam Jacobs, at 1:36 PM
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