Savage

     Today in class we read a few pages from an old history textbook. In the few pages we read, I learned about traditions, lifestyles, and appearance of Indians. We were also told to look up the definition of the words savage and savages, and according to Google  save means "(of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and uncontrolled". The word savagery means "the quality of being fierce or cruel" (Google). We then searched the word 'savages' and 'savagery' in the archived textbook and read some excerpts from other parts of the textbook that used those words. These words are mostly used when describing/ talking about Indians. For example "the whites were against the savages" (p.192). If I was an american student reading this text as part of my schoolwork, I would think that Native Americans were vicious people, and that were barely human. 

Battle with the Reds Rumors

Today, July 29, the papers say that in Utah there was a battle between the Indians and the settlers. I can't imagine what the women and children are going through right now, I hope that they are safe. It says that the settlers are starting to organize companies, that I think will prevent the Indians from passing the boarder. It's becoming difficult for anyone to leave Jacksons Hole. Governor Richards says he's going to try to control the settlers and try to prevent them from attacking the Indians. I hope this all ends very soon. There are Bannocks in the area, and they steal and won't think twice before killing a white man. I am very scared for both The Whites and Indians down by Jacksons Hole.  

Newspapers

What is a newspaper?

"[A] set of large sheets of paper that have news stories, information about local events, advertisements, etc., and that are folded together and sold every day or every week" Merriam Webster 

When and where did newspapers come into existence?

According to LocalHistories the newspaper first came into existence in 1641 in England  

What were some old newspapers in the US?

Library of Congress says some old news papers include: Golden Valley Chronicle, Evening Star, South Bend News-Times, The Omaha Daily Bee and many more.

Newspapers today:

The Los Angeles Times has stories about education, sports, entertainment, politics, etc. The leading stories now are of a teacher being fired for being inappropriate with minors, El Nino, and Lamar Odom's story about his unexpected drug abuse that left him fighting for his life. 

What does is "newspaper of record" mean? 

According to Wiki being a newspaper record means the newspaper "is a major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically authoritative". The New York Times was the first newspaper of record in 1913. The Los Angeles Times is another example of a newspaper of record. 

How is looking at a newspaper different from our use of social media to stay connected?

Staying connected with what is going on in the world is much easier through social media than it is through newspapers. This is because with social media, everything is quicker, as soon as something happens it is on Twitter, or CNN. Newspapers take much longer. There's an entire process of getting the newspaper edited, published, and printed.

The New York Times 

Cultural Appropriation

      Many music festivals are banning Native American headdresses due to cultural appropriation. Including the Glastonbury Festival in England, and one in Canada. The reason Glastonbury is banning the headdresses is because of a petition created by David Round on change.org. Round states that wearing the headdresses is "an offensive and disrespectful form of cultural appropriation", and that it makes a diverse culture similar. He also says that by wearing the headdresses, people are creating "damaging and racist stereotypes".The Canadian music festival, Bass Coast, banned the headdresses to "respect the dignity of aboriginal people". Organizers of the festival tell The Guardian that since their festival 'takes place on indigenous land' they feel that they should listen to the aborigines and not allow the headdresses, they also say that they do not want to separate culture and aesthetics.  
     Music festivals are not the only place were headdresses are controversial. In the 2012 Victoria's Secret fashion show, model Karlie Kloss wore a magnificent headdress tribal jewelry and fringed details on her heels. After the fashion show Victoria's Secret apologized by saying "We are sorry that the Native American headdress replica used in our recent fashion show has upset individuals. We sincerely apologize as we absolutely had no intention to offend anyone. Out of respect, we will not be including the outfit in any broadcast, marketing materials nor in any other way." The band No Doubt shot a music video for one of their singles, and in the music video Gwen Stefani dressed as a Native American which caused many people to be angry. They too had too apologize. In their apology they said that since they are a "multi-racial" band they're built on diversity, and that they had no intention in offending anyone. They took the video down immediately because "being hurtful to people is simply not who they are". 

Gwen Stefani in No Doubt music video

    The reason I chose to research about cultural appropriation, is because I come from a culture where many things are copied as well. My friends and I often have discussions about how it annoys us when other people try to copy us and say that they're being "chic" or "trendy". I remember coming to school with henna on my hands as a kid and people always giving me weird looks and saying offensive things. Now of you go on twitter, you can see all these twitter accounts with pictures of henna with captions like "henna goals" or heat-eyed emojis. I chose to research this because I wanted to know what other cultures have traditions that they don't like being copied. 

Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/glastonbury-festival-headdress-ban_n_5991972.html

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/25/canadian-festival-bans-native-american-style-headdresses 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/karlie-kloss-victorias-secret-headdress-fashion-show_n_2091958.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/native-american-cultural-appropriation/ 

https://www.change.org/p/glastonbury-festival-ban-the-sale-of-native-american-style-headdresses-on-site-from-2015 

First Quarter Reflection

       In this past quarter, we have learned many things. We started off by discussing the differences between empathy and sympathy. Then we used what we learned about the two, and applied it to historical events. We watched Glory and 12 Years a Slave and after we were asked if we could sympathize/empathize with the slaves and soldiers in the movies. We then went on to learn about the Civil War and constitutional changes afterwards. Which included how slaves were no longer considered 3/5 of a person, and since that was abolished, southern states had more representation in Congress. Then I remember learning that a state could not secede from the union because the 13th amendment states that anyone born in the United States is a citizen of the union,. So by seceding, that state would be taking away American citizens and that is not allowed. Then we learned about the black codes in the south after slavery was abolished The Black codes were laws for the Negros, they basically left Negros with little freedom without calling it slavery. Then came the Reconstruction period, which was the period of time after the Civil War where the US was 'rebuilding' the constitution and creating equal rights. The Reconstruction time period would have been less violent if President Lincoln was not assassinated, this is because Lincoln was a moderate and most other people were radicals. So after his assassination, the radicals took over. After learning about the end of the Civil War, we moved on to learn about "The Wild West". We learned why and how westward expansion happened. We learned about all the people that lived/ migrated to the west, and what they did. Also how they were treated, and for some (like the Chinese) it was not very well.

      This history course is the first course that I have actually enjoyed, and I think it's because of my change in work ethic and also the material we've learned about. I feel very on top of things in this class. Paying attention in this class is much easier than in my other classes. That's because everything we've learned so far is interesting and relevant. I never would have thought that we could write essays on movies that we watched in class. However, I did struggle with the in-class essay. I didn't finish, but I had all my notes and research done. I need to work on being able to put my thoughts into actual words, and not have them be so jumbled up. I need to work on my comprehension skills as well. I remember when we read the article about peer pressure and I thought I had read it very thoroughly, but when it came to answering the questions in class I found myself struggling. By improving these skills I am sure that I will grow as a history student, and do well in this class.  

Learning History Through Film

       Movies may not seem like a great way to teach a group of students, because they’re correlated with ‘fun’. However, I have learned a lot from the two that we have seen in class. Movies can make us feel like we are a part of the story. Movies not only allow us to experience these events, but they allow us to develop great analytical skills, explore real events, and attitudes by watching them in a critical way, and doing some research.

    The movie Glory won many awards for its excellence. Some included, the Academy Award for Best Performance and the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. These categories help with understanding the movie, and actually learning something from it. An article from the New York Times says, “Glory is the first serious American movie about the civil war to be made in years.” Meaning that all the other movies have been done poorly, and that they did not teach the audience what it really was like. In Glory, the actors do a great job in showing us what it was really like back then. For example, “[Denzel Washington]... brings an anguish to Trip that seems to go beyond the role itself.” (LA Times). Good acting helps us to be analytical when watching a movie because, the actors allow us to think about things like “why are they making that face?” or “why does he do that”. Asking questions like this allows us to understand and learn more about the events happening in the movie.

        There are many challenges in making a movie so that the audience can learn something from it. For instance, budget. Glory had a budget of $18 million, and they were able to make a ‘good, moving, complicated film’ (New York Times). 12 Years a Slave had a budget of $20 million, and they were able to make a movie that ‘may be the one that finally makes it impossible for American cinema to continue to sell the ugly lies it’s been hawking for more than a century.’ (New York Times). The more money a production company has the better that movie is in depicting accurate events.  Filmmakers also have to make sure that they convey a specific message, they have goals and intentions. Edward Zwick, director of Glory tells Michelle P. Perry from ‘The Tech’ ‘I think the choice was to try to focus on neither blacks nor whites, but on the regiment. One of the points of the story was to explore a time in which both blacks and whites found some commonality of purpose!’

    Movies allow us to make arguments too. After watching 12 Years a Slave, I concluded that slavery is terrible. I know this is a known fact, but I can use the movie to support my argument. Also Chiwetel Ejiofor won many awards for his acting, because he truly showed us what it was like to be a slave back then. Lupita Nyong'o does the same An article from The Guardian says, "Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a performance of incomparable heroism and presence as Northup; Lupita Nyong'o is passionate and defiant in the role of his fellow prisoner Patsey, and Michael Fassbende is the sadistic slaves master Epps, whose habitual sexual abuse and angry self-hate is revealed to be pathological and under-reported part of the system; a system which in the words of one character enables the abuser's violence to 'trample his guilt'". This review shows that since the actors gave such an excellent performance, the audience is able to see the true problems of slavery. By critically watching an actor's performance, a viewer can conclude many things, and if the director has done a well enough job, those things can teach the viewer many true things.     

    Historical accuracy is the only major thing that can effect what the viewer learns from a movie. Fortunately, both 12 Years a Slave and Glory  were fairly accurate. 12 Years a Slave was based on 'Sloman Northup's 1853 narrative 'Twelve Years a Slave' and according to hisorians.org two historians have verified that his narrative portrayed an accurate representation of slavery in some parts of Louisiana. The main historical issues that the New York Times found in 12 Years a Slave was that Mcqueen made slavery look 'unrelentingly hellish', when in fact some slaves would be allowed to get time off during the holiday season to rest. However for Glory, Mackubin T. Owens from Ashland University  says that 'Glory' has many historical inaccuracies. The fifty fourth regime in the movie was mostly made up of runaway slaves, it was actually a regiment of freedom, and they were recruited from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. Also Frederick Douglas had two sons that were one of the first people to volunteer for the regiment, and the eldest, Lewis, ended up serving as sergeant-major for the regiment. In the same article Owens says "by inaccurately depicting the 54th as a regiment of former slaves, 'Glory' reveals the deeper truth that blacks in general were not the natural slaves that Southerners believed to be and that abolitionists feared they might be." It is important for a movie to be historically accurate because if it is not, the audience leaves the movie with something that may or may not be true.

         Movies are in fact a great way of learning about the past. By doing some research and watching a movie in a critical way, movie viewers can develop analytical skills, broaden their knowledge on real events, and what the attitudes that actors use mean. I think that teachers should start watching movies in their history classes, because they really do teach us a lot.  

Links:

Glory:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Glory#tab=summary   (budget and box office)

http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/19993/Glory/awards  (awards)

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE4D8113FF937A25751C1A96F948260 (review; Vincent Canby)

http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-00-patriot/ (historical accuarcy)

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-12-14/entertainment/ca-186_1_civil-war-epic (Glory Critique)

http://tech.mit.edu/V109/N60/zwick.60a.html (intentions)

12 Years a Slave:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Twelve-Years-a-Slave#tab=summary (budget and box office)

google for awards

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/09/12-years-a-slave-review (reviews, and intentions)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/movies/12-years-a-slave-holds-nothing-back-in-show-of-suffering.html?_r=0 (Critique)

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2014/12-years-a-slave-examines-the-old-souths-heart-of-darkness (historical accuracy)

Practice Incorporating a Quotation

"In the heat of the fight, men are color blind"

The movie "glory" illustrates how the white and black soldiers come together as one. As one critic says, "In the heat of the fight, men are color blind".

I learned that paraphrasing is used when I want to write about a writer's idea, and quotations are used when I want to use the exact words of an authors. 

This is what Mrs. Lawson wanted me to learn today:

• Only use a quote when it adds power and style to my writing.
• Always make it clear, from context, that I understand the full meaning of the quote.
• Whether I quote or paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it. 
• If I use another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, I have to use quotation marks and give credit. 
• If I use another author's presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, I better have a good reason for doing that, and I MUST give credit. 
• Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources. 

I get it and I'm ready to move forward.