He is saying how throughout his life his being of "yellow" color has influenced the way he has been percieved as. He is not being noticed as a man or a woman, white or black, but as nothing or in his words vanishing. People, mainly whites, have seen him as transparent or as i would say don't even see him at all. There is no place in history for him to fit in. He give the example of the bus. consisting of whites in the front and blacks in the back. Where does yellow fit in? no where in he believes.

There are many cases that you could use this in. They don't all necessarily have to do with race, maybe they deal with popularity/social outlook. Maybe a kid in class gets made fun of or has no "group" to fit hisself into because he/she is out of the social norm. Kids can be discriminated against because of how they dress or what music they listen to. Discrimination doesn't always deal with race.

How Jews Became White Folks

Karen Brodkin is the author of How Jews Became White Folks. She writes from a different point of view which is very confusing. She tries to portray that Jews “became” white through a series of events.

Karen says how anti-Semitism was at the peak when her parents were growing up and that they got through this tough struggle by “pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps.” Karen goes on later to describe that there were many Europeans already in America but the ones who came after 1880 came in too big of a group and drew a focus to themselves in a negative way. The real Americans started to close the immigrations doors on anyone who was not of Northern European decent. Since Karen’s parents came to America after this time they had to struggle for work, jobs, education, and for the “right” to be an American/white. Since, they made it through this hardship of discrimination not in a black racist way, but a less harsh down-graded white version than they were successful. She states that Whites discriminated against the Jews in a less demeaning fashion, but still it happened for reasons she described that were ended by affirmative actions programs. These programs brought about a new view to American society. A view that all European decent people whether they were Jewish, Italian, or whatever were more “white” and helpful middle-class workers, than African Americans, Native Americans, or Asians.

Was there an extreme segregation of Whites versus Jews? When people think of segregations they think of black and white; they don’t think about whites and Jews. Maybe some Americans said some hateful things or fought occasionally with Jewish people. Those small instances compare nothing to the pure hatred the Whites had towards blacks. There are many more instances where blacks were beaten and treated unfairly because of their skin color than Jews. Jews don’t really have a skin tone difference.

What I got through the reading she says that the Jews were seen as White before they were discriminated against. So, the riots that occurred because a Jew went were he wasn’t supposed to or sat where he wasn’t suppose to almost has no relevance when we are talking about segregation in history. Jews can’t become “White” if they already were seen as that. They can be viewed as different maybe because of their heritage or accent, but not because of their skin color. That’s why I think this article is coming at this situation all wrong.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow- Extra Credit

In this chapter Richard Wright discusses the many lessons young Negro boys learned as they grow up in the times of slavery and racism.

This chapter hints towards the fact that young Negro boys and/or girls need to respect white people and their privileges. In the first example the boy gets in a fight with a white gang because he fought back instead of running and hiding his moms attitude him is much harsher. Her attitude is much like a white person. She is angered to the point where she beats and punishes him for his actions, but she has different reasons for beating her soon. She is fearful of losing her job working at the white people’s house because of her son’s actions. If it was a white woman beating this Negro boy the reason she would have would be lack of respect towards the superior white people. She would also beat the boy more because she has the privilege to and she wants to teach him a harsh lesson. There are many more examples throughout this chapter of a black boy either disobeying the white mans law or being punished for not even doing anything. Another example would be when the boy’s tire popped and some white youngsters try to give a ride back to town. The boys ask the Negro if he wants a drink of alcohol and he simply says, “Oh, no!” This one mistake, this one slip without adding the word sir to the end of the quote, gives the Negro boy a very harsh time. The boy gets the empty bottle thrown at his face and as he falls scraps his legs and elbows all up. The young boys decide this is enough punishment, but they do say that the Negro boy is lucky they didn’t kill him for his mistake.

All-in-all these examples prove the harsh life a Negro man had to endure from youth to death. Any slight slip proves to be a life threatening and unaffordable to the Negro man. Can these slips be avoided? The answer to this is absolutely not. Even if a Negro boy or girl learns from family members and watching others getting beat they could never get away without being punished sometime. As the example stated in the book the boy never said, “Pease” without saying Mr. in front of it but this did not matter. The white men used this as an excuse to beat the Negro people they did not like. If the boy would’ve said that he always said Mr. Pease than he would be calling one white man a liar. If he admitted to this “crime” he would be punished for not respecting the white man. This situation proves that no matter how hard the black people tried to stay away from danger they could not avoid these situations of punishment.

After reading this chapter I have not learned much. I knew about these hard times already from history class. I wish this never happened, I wish that we could have all lived in peace from the beginning, but there is nothing I can do about the past. There is however something I can do about the future.

Kindred

Octavia butler has written a masterpiece. She has written a book that portrays black life through the early 1800s. The irony and ties that the boy, Rufus, and Dana, the black woman, had is ingenious. The woman keeps going back into history saving this boy she has no idea who is. Until one day she learns that he is related to her. She never knew that a white boy was her distant relative. This shock made me and her curious and determined to find out her history. As she tackled this task she endured the hardships of being black back in the days when owning slaves was an every day event.

Is this story an accurate representation of the past and the future? Or is this a special case where a young boy, soon to be plantation owner, who starts out being fond of black people turns out to be just another mean and bitter slave owner. Are all plantations this harsh to slaves? Or is this a case where slaves are treated pretty well compared to other plantations? No one will actually know for sure unless you lived back then or have relatives who lived in those times that are still alive to tell you stories. Or if you have Octavia Butler write a brilliant story with both those circumstances.

I’m going to start off saying Octavia Butler is an amazing young writer. I have never been able to sit down and read any book because I get bored or tired, but for once I enjoyed this reading experience. She kept me intrigued with the back and forth reality checks that Dana had with and without her husband. I began to understand the hardships and realize the everyday occurrences that went on, on the plantations, in the early 1800s. The way the slaves were: treated, forced, tortured, beaten, raped, and sold for the pure satisfaction of the white plantation owners is mind boggling. Even when the slave owner Rufus grew up his entire life cherishing and helping the black slaves he began to grow mean and bitter toward them. He was especially grim towards the ones he cared for the most, a.k.a Alice, his soon to be wife. One thing that came to my attention was that Butler continued to bring Dana back to modern times, which in her eyes meant freedom. She presented the idea that over the years things have become really great for black people, giving them endless amounts of freedom compared to the olden days. But is that the case? Around where I was born and raised it was semi true but in other parts of America this is not exactly the truth.