What I enjoy about readings such as this, is how it brings the dark past of the United States to light. From the reading, What bothered me a lot was how Chinatown was spoken about as a slum and “rotten spot”. If it was such a slum, why did they not think about cleaning it up? I’ve been to the Asian parts of LA, and it’s strange to think about how it’s same with places today. I see that people are mostly talk and less action, but in comparison to back then, there are people who do try to help out. I can compare what I read in the chapters to many topics that occurs in the time I live in. When the chapter mentioned how people complained about the Chinese taking the railroad and agriculture jobs, it reminded me of illegal immigrants taking U.S. jobs and U.S citizens’ complaints about it.
“Pomeroy implied that the county’s only legitimate residents were whites.” U.S. history continues to leave me flabbergasted because of the way white people back then was so utterly convinced that they were the highest of the highest because of their race. Was the U.S. just an experiment to try and create an ‘elite’ country? What is up with man and their quest for territory and expansion? What if countries “restarted” and began to model themselves after the United States? Presenting themselves as a place of “opportunity” and “freedom”? Is it too late for that now? I believe their actions were not only because of their belief in “manifest destiny” but the text blantly shows their fear. The Alien Land Law Acts especially made me ashamed to live in California. It took so many years to get our society to where it is today, and I fear that with the wrong steps, we could easily fall back into the past.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Response Paper
Responding to the Socratic Seminar and Reading
According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of ‘Equality’ is “the quality or state of being equal”. So what is ‘Equal’? I received several answers like, “…of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another”, “not showing variation in appearance, structure, or proportion”, and “like in quality, nature, or status”. This raised an interesting question in the discussion: Is true equality a good thing? What kind of equality are we –people- striving for?
Harrison Bergeron was a complex story due to its form of ‘equality’. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal…They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” The setting was a world where people wore handicaps, like weights, masks for beautiful people and ear pieces which prevented smart people from thinking too much. One of my first thoughts about this was ‘Why wasn’t the standard of equality the other way around”? Instead of giving everyone ugly masks, and weights, why not give them all beautiful masks? Why not invent a way to make everyone fast? Asking a question with no expectation of an answer, I soon enough received one. “It’s easier to down grade people, than make them all perfect.” The moment I heard this, I understood. Weights are easy to come by, unlike a miracle concoction that makes everyone beauty.
According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of ‘Equality’ is “the quality or state of being equal”. So what is ‘Equal’? I received several answers like, “…of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another”, “not showing variation in appearance, structure, or proportion”, and “like in quality, nature, or status”. This raised an interesting question in the discussion: Is true equality a good thing? What kind of equality are we –people- striving for?
Harrison Bergeron was a complex story due to its form of ‘equality’. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal…They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” The setting was a world where people wore handicaps, like weights, masks for beautiful people and ear pieces which prevented smart people from thinking too much. One of my first thoughts about this was ‘Why wasn’t the standard of equality the other way around”? Instead of giving everyone ugly masks, and weights, why not give them all beautiful masks? Why not invent a way to make everyone fast? Asking a question with no expectation of an answer, I soon enough received one. “It’s easier to down grade people, than make them all perfect.” The moment I heard this, I understood. Weights are easy to come by, unlike a miracle concoction that makes everyone beauty.
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