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GRAFFITI ON ATLANTAS BELTLINE

On April 7th, 2024, I went on a short field trip with my college English class. For this field trip, we traveled to the Atlanta beltline, the very popular, long trail that runs through parts of Atlanta's neighborhoods, restaurant and shopping corners, and even Ponce city market. This popular trail is always busy as people are always running, walking, skating, or simply enjoying their time with friends and family outside. There is even a popular roller skater that's known to travel this beltline with headphones and sings happily down the road. However, it’s not easy to miss the various graffiti art that people have come to fill the bridges and streets with. As you travel down this long beltline, you will find the very creative and significant art that local people have contributed to. Although it may look like a huge mess of random colors and lines, as you look closer to these images, you will find meaning. Some pictures may just be some creative outtake, or some may be political. You may find political statements or phrases, or just drawings of famous people. But through this trip, we specifically examined the political, and decolonial aspect of this art. I remember seeing phrases such as, “Black Lives Matter, Free Palestine, and Religion is Poison.” We talked about how significant these mean and how important it was that they were written in these areas. The beltline of course is in a wealthier area of Atlanta, therefore, the usage of graffiti is important as it shows how economic status does not end the need for free speech. We walked down the line further and noticed the changes in color of homes or the property lines, showing how people may gentrify areas of Atlanta and the relationship between status and property. Through this field trip, I observed plenty and talked about it with my classmates. In the end, I just became more aware of how ignorant I am and that there is so much that goes into politics, graffiti, art, property, economic class, and more; therefore, showing the diverse history and movements of Atlanta, Georgia. 

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DECOLONIAL ENGLISH CLASS: A MANIFESTO

American classrooms have been a conductor of colonial ideas since their creation. The colonizers’ institution of standardized education has made the classroom a place for regulation and itemization of learning. This manifesto provides the means of decolonizing the American English classroom, one whose curriculum is heavily impacted by what the white man deems “appropriate” to learn. The white man’s government presents us with a set of boxes to check to symbolize our learning, and when our own human uniqueness doesn’t fit into those boxes, we are seen as a failure.

From a sense of failure brings a slew of mental health deterioration. Specifically, the current education system breaks down the teen’s mind as one that is ready to learn or adapt. However, what the current system fails to account for is the benchmark for determining adaptability and growth. They currently establish a singular number that reminds students of the construct of their success in the class, leading to a toxic mentality of wanting to consistently gain a growth in the number. The process detaches genuine learning from the benchmark and defeats the purpose of the central number. Specifically, the NIH (National Institute of Mental Health) notes that “taking challenging classes, exercising, and engaging in creative activities like art or music can strengthen brain circuits and help the brain mature” within teens. Yet, when these challenging classes primarily base success off of singular numbers, it ensues the reverse effect and significantly nullifies the benefit of learning within these courses. Students further deal with numerous physical, emotional, and social changes during this time in their lives, creating a much greater susceptibility to mental issues overall. The stress of maintaining a certain number or attempting to quantify or define one’s success within the classroom directly correlates to the development of certain mental health conditions, including “feelings of decreased wellbeing and an increased likelihood of developing anxiety or depression.”

The colonial education system causes more inhibitions to learning than it resolves. The institution has become commercialized and result focused, despite the initial intentions of creating a space for holistic learning. It runs on the principle of the seller-client relationship, where the seller is the institution or teacher providing education to the client, who is a student. Students are only taught under academic premises, priming them for industry work and leaving their moral, ethical, and tangible educational spheres lacking. This commercialization has caused diversity and the mingling of different perspectives between educators and students in the classroom to diminish. The white man pushes for instituting the monotonous literature of his fellow old white men into the curriculum, thus reducing student access to literature of other cultures and ethnicities. Coincidently, the colonizer’s system of educational grading causes competition and low self esteem in students. This keeps the colonized students doubtful of themselves, meaning the white man will always stay at the top. The colonizer keeps his authority in the classroom unquestionable and as a result, the imagination of students contained. With this manifesto, we will decolonize the American English classroom by implementing solutions that will create lasting impacts on student learning and exposure to multicultural ideas.

How does one decolonize an English class?

Each week students put their input into class and change ideas.

Allowing for direct suggestions from students will lead to both a more diverse learning experience as students and their knowledge come from various backgrounds, as well as a more engaging classroom setting since students are interacting with content that they are interested in. The University of San Diego found that “students tend to be more interested in learning when they can interact with one another and participate actively in their own education” and this type of classroom interaction can “build both collaboration and communication skills”. This can be done in various ways, including a teacher and without. For example, without a teacher, one student each week can choose a work that they feel relates to the theme of the English class and teach this work and its intricacies to their classmates. On the other hand, a teacher can play an important role in moderating the student’s suggestions as they have the most education on said topic. The teacher can allow students to put topics into a hat for a random weekly draw, create a classroom forum on a platform like Reddit or Padlet for students to post new or intriguing resources, and anything similar that engages student participation and recommendations.

Have teachers focusing on the same theme rotate through classes

Introducing new teachers, or guest lecturers, including activists, organizers, etc., each week or so, will allow students to go through different teaching styles, different ideas, and a more in-depth version of that class. Many students will find that the real life voices and lessons of others are more influential to them than the current system. Some might think this could be confusing - switching up styles so frequently - however by keeping the theme of the class constant, students are introduced to many perspectives on said topic. This directly opposes the current, one teacher per topic model and diversifies student learning and experience.

 Take field trips

Getting out of the class and experiencing the real world effects of what students are learning is wildly beneficial. For most students, the main question asked when being taught something is - “When will I ever need to know this?” Those who study the Gurukul education system in India found that “robust learning of the students can only take place when focus is given on practical knowledge” and that applied knowledge prepares students for all fields of life. Some from the American Psychological Association (APA) noted that “with the world of artificial intelligence we’re walking into, we need application, not memorization” in classrooms to keep students from turning into robots regurgitating information. The process of showing how the curriculum has a real world application makes students that much more eager to learn. This will also allow students to gain more real world, diverse experiences that they can then apply in the classroom and their own lives. These field trips will be designed to be as inclusive and accessible as possible, ensuring that all students are given the opportunity for real world application of classroom topics. 

Class forum/Discussion blog

A class forum can be used for students to openly discuss their thoughts on topics being taught in class. This forum can be only slightly regulated, so students are not afraid to speak their mind. This forum can include subsections for projects, lectures, and individual research that students can share without having the burden of being graded. Not only does this create a space where students can be comfortable having critical academic discussion and casual conversations on class content, it also allows for constant engagement with different perspectives outside of the classroom. Teachers and students must foster a comfortable environment for optimal benefits of the forum, which can then help in maintaining classroom rapport.

Eradicate strict grading rubrics, grading focused on feedback and effort

Many students inevitably prioritize grading over learning, sacrificing their own creativity and passion to follow assignment guidelines. The rubrics for many writing assignments follow a specific standard, making it harder to expand into new perspectives. Grading also causes stress, competition, and hierarchies within student bodies. Students may be less inclined to help each other in order to climb the ranks. Practicers of the Gurukul education system agree that “present day education mainly focuses on a rank based system which is driven by animosity towards their peers” and additionally includes the role of parents as condoners of scholastic competition as the “knowledge of students [is] only [measured] by academic performance.” These dynamics follow students outside of the classroom, sustaining a society where success comes from conquering and claiming capital. To combat promoting colonial ideals, we must replace standard rubric-based grading with comprehensive feedback on assignments from both teachers and peers. The classroom should be a place where ideas are abundantly flowing and students engage genuinely with the material and each other. Creating an environment where assignments are not meant to be done “right,” but meant to be done in a manner that allows students to truly understand the material and content being taught is extremely important. Although it can be argued that this creates an imbalance, with students' grades not being graded evenly and fairly, getting feedback from multiple students and teachers creates a wider pool of opinions and perspectives. When grading in this way, it is important that students have a clear understanding of how well they are doing throughout the course of the class, with both feedback and accessible teachers to communicate with. In a larger scale environment where a grade must be submitted at the end of the course, understanding of the adjusted English class grading system will allow students to understand their weaknesses, what they can do to improve, how their effort is being reflected and rewarded, and most importantly, eliminate as much stress as possible. 

Introduce students to more diverse reading materials

Once again, a teacher can play a vital role in finding and selecting these various texts. Many students will agree that they have been taught the same works year after year, so by drawing from sources and perspectives from every corner of the Earth (rather than just the West), the teacher will spark the interest of the students and aid them in diversifying their mind and thinking. Moreover, an increase in the amount of philosophical and theological texts will have a deep effect on the students’ critical thinking ability. Although such works can be difficult for some students, by being presented with such thought-provoking and intricate material, students will have no choice but to evolve as thinkers. Religion and philosophy are two areas whose implications are constantly prevalent outside of the classroom, which creates opportunities for field trips to witness application of class discussions in the real world. Similarly, religion and philosophy are two areas in which culture is extremely relevant, so more interaction with such texts will introduce more cultures and ways of living to the students.

Reflection: 

Our manifesto calls for a complete decolonization of the standard, western (American) English class. This means students become collaborative leaders of the classroom and that their learning, in and out of the classroom, with and/or without a teacher, is the total focus of the class rather than their grade at the end of the term. 

Labor was divided very well, almost completely as a result of Jaiden who had the marvelous idea to sit in a study room in the library and allow for the other groups members to stop by in shifts in the morning and evening who each did their part very well and in a timely manner. In the morning, Rebecca, Tanaya, Marcellus, Malachi, Amit and Jaiden began to brainstorm ideas for the manifesto and find sources. This shift ended with creating an outline that would be actualized in the later session. In the evening, Pratham, Amogh, Rohan, Cierra, Marcellus, and Jaiden created the intro and body of the manifesto using the ideas and sources synthesized in the morning. Overall, the process was extremely efficient and, in a completely decolonial fashion, the rubric’s assigned roles were basically completely ignored other than Jaiden who acted as the ideal ‘leader’(by organizing and working alongside group members). 

Prior to meeting, many scheduling challenges arose in the group chat, but this was ultimately solved by Jaiden’s idea of a long Thursday work session. Once the meeting began, only good challenges were presented. Each suggestion was met with resistance and shortly resolved with reasoning before being added to the manifesto. The main challenge with these suggestions was that, unfortunately, the current model of an English class is quite efficient, and changing every aspect of this model initially seems as though the system is just being complicated. However, through group collaboration these challenges were brushed aside and the manifesto was successfully created.

We all agree that the manifesto was done extremely productively and the final product is one that we are comfortable and confident submitting. Overall, we feel that we did exceptionally well on our manifesto.

Sources:

America’s students are falling behind. Here’s how to reimagine the classroom (apa.org)

The Teen Brain: 7 Things to Know - National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (nih.gov)

Decolonize the Classroom – The Traveling Teacher (image)

Kohn, Alfie. (2011). The Case Against GRADES. Educational leadership: journal of the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development, N.E.A. 69. 28-33. 

Decreased class size, increased active learning? Intended and enacted teaching strategies in smaller classes - Mary C Wright, Inger Bergom, Tracy Bartholomew, 2019 (sagepub.com)

https://twalter-60109.medium.com/gradeless-an-english-teachers-journey-towards-agency-through-feedback-9ee774d3e4fe 

https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/teacher-centered-vs-student-centered-learning/

Gurukul System of Education: The importance of the Gurukul system and why Indian education needs it (indiatimes.com)

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A Womans and Mans perspective on Feminism

Rebecca: What does Feminism mean to you? 

Ethan: I would say, for me, probably it has too simple of a definition. I sort of see it as don’t be sexist, don't be a bad person. I feel like it's something maybe I dont give a lot of thought to, it's just something that I sort of like. that I accept that feminism is probably a good thing. I don’t want to overstep the other questions but I would probably consider myself a feminist even though I don't do enough to make it up but I don't know I just think it's something by definition good. What does feminism mean to you?

Rebecca: I think feminism has a lot of likes, depending on the person, it means a lot of different things. I think that the main goal of what feminism is or should be, in my opinion, is someone that goes against sexism and/or  gender norms. I feel that feminism could also mean just empowering women. I feel that it's also about supporting women. I think depending on the person there are a lot of different definitions and different opinions on what feminism should be. But I feel that it should overall be something that or an action of someone that goes against sexism and supports women and acknowledges the gender roles and the challenges between men and women. 

Ethan: Do you consider yourself a feminist? 

Rebecca: I think I consider myself a feminist. In my terms, I think it's more about supporting and empowering women, not judging women for anything they do or want to do. I do consider myself a feminist with those terms. Do you consider yourself feminist Ethan? 

Ethan: Yes I would consider myself a feminist, but I think in general, there is hesitancy for most men to say that. There's like this sort of radical representation of it so there's this hesitancy to give yourself this label because of how it would be portrayed. But I still think that with the basic definition, I would and most men, but there is still some hesitance. 

Ethan: How do you connect with feminism? 

Rebecca: I think I connect to it because, for me, I don’t… In the woman world, I feel there are a lot of issues between specific women groups towards each other, and I feel like for me if a woman wants to do that someone else doesn’t consider feminist, I think that I don’t judge women for their actions like with their body, with their career and with my definition of what feminism is, I do good by staying supportive. I think I stay connected by standing up in moments where it may be sexist where men are telling someone what to do or have some superiority over women. I think I'm good at speaking up for myself and doing things in spite of gender roles, for example, just being a woman in the engineering department and being in a school that's predominantly men. I feel that that's a way that I keep in touch with feminism and pretty much go down the path I'm going. How do you think you connect with feminism? 

Ethan: I would say being male, there is naturally a sort of distance. In my personal experience, I would say that growing up with my mom, and her just playing every role and never buying into a role of just like, ‘ oh she stays home and cooks and my dad doesn't,’ i think it was just her doing everything. I think that sort of prevented me from developing this notion of specific roles that had to be filled because I saw her play like every role. So I guess, there were certain things that I never bought into like I never had that perception of gender roles because I saw her play both sides of it I guess. So I would say that that impacted my perspective of gender in general subconsciously my whole life. And me personally, there's naturally a distance from it because I am not a woman. But I guess it mainly is just my perspective of gender roles through my surroundings and how it was shaped for me at an early age. 

Ethan: Should there be one label for feminism?

Rebecca: I think that there shouldn’t be one label. I think feminism is a very hard topic to put a precise definition on. I think that it should just have an overall goal. I don’t think that just because one person does something and another person does something else, that doesn’t make them not a feminist. I think there should just be an overall goal of just attacking the sexist and gender roles that there are in our modern society, and empowering women.

Ethan: I feel like having this one definition can create unity and get a large amount of people behind it, but I also think it inherently limits how far it can go because if there’s only like one way for feminism to look, then you start to get contradictions between different groups within it. I think the broad, single definition serves its purpose of getting people together, but I think when you try to push the limits, it sort of comes up short because it doesn’t really acknowledge the intersectionality of people. So it just serves its purpose for unity, but eventually it falls apart and you realize you need those distinct definitions for different people.

Rebecca: How has sexism in general impacted our modern society or your personal life?

Ethan: I don’t want to repeat myself, but I’d say just going back to like my mom kind of doing all the roles - I grew up with her and my sister mainly too, so it was just kind of them doing everything, I didn’t develop that distinct gender role really, we all just kind of did everything. They did the yardwork, then when I was old enough, I did it. It sort of made day-to-day activities genderless for me, I guess.

Rebecca: I would say the same thing, as well. I grew up with my mom and it was four kids and two older brothers, but my mom kind of broke gender roles just being a single mom, caring for four kids by herself, I think that was very influential on my personal life. I guess now in modern society, it is still very prominent. Gender roles aren’t as prominent as they were a long time ago and it is very different now and I’m thankful for that, but also there are moments of “women shouldn’t be doing this, women shouldn’t be doing that.” and what I said before, just being a girl in a male-dominant school and major, I feel it is still very much there in our society, and there’s still progression to be made in moving away from gender roles.

Rebecca: Do you think we can change gender roles in the future, and how?

Ethan: I think, like you said, we’re already seeing a lot of that progress - even going back 10 years, 20 years, 30 - you can definitely see the progress of moving away from those roles and women becoming accepted in new roles, but obviously there’s still work to do. I think the progress is going to continue for the better, but in terms of gender roles ever being like completely, 100% erased, it might be a little naive to say that’s possible for it to be 100% perfected, but there’s always going to be decent progress made towards it.

Rebecca: We always have an influence on our children and their generations and I think that how we raise our kids and younger generations at a young age can influence that to an extent, but I feel like, maybe there can be slow progression, it will still probably always be there. But if we were to change it, it’d be through how we raise our kids and just having representation with women and just pushing through.

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An amateur book review: Colonialism in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

In the summer of 2022, I read the first book that truly made me think. Filled with horrific scenes, beautiful analogies, and relatable characters, Toni Morrison writes a very touching novel that everyone must read. The Bluest Eye discusses issues involving racial discrimination, beauty standards, the complexity of love and so much more while including her personal experiences and emotions in a world filled with hate. This debut novel makes Morrison iconic; someone who's not afraid to bring controversial topics in a world that was racist towards her.

Although one can dive into one theme of this deep book, it all comes back to the beauty standards of the western world, and how, eventually, these standards continue to affect other cultures, and destroy our self-image. Repression of beauty comes from societal opinion, and in the 1940s, it's easy for everyone in the United States to agree that a white girl with blue eyes and blond hair is the definition of beautiful. A country with a history of racism continues to bring down anyone who didn't fit this description, and pressures it into our society by glorifying this perfect image through actors, dolls, stories, and history. In the United States, and throughout Europe, this standard of beauty is known, and therefore, through years of colonialism and slavery, this standard was also pushed onto races that didn't fit the stereotype. Eventually, children growing up in this postcolonial world began to believe that they weren't beautiful because they weren't white. Those who didn't fit the description were born insecure, wishing they could change their features.

Toni Morrison wrote this book despite these norms, and because she finally wanted to "read about people like [her]. People who were black and were young and had lived in the Midwest. [Nobody] wrote about them and whenever they did, they were never center stage in a text. There were always toys, backgrounds, scenery."

The Bluest Eye follows a young girl, Pecola Breedlove. She was born to a poor black family in 1940s Ohio. Throughout her childhood, the white beauty image is presented to her in a number of ways. Beginning with white dolls and even the iconic Shirley Temple, Pecola wishes to be beautiful at a very young age. White is depicted to be beautiful, and she idealizes it, and craves to be just like Shirley Temple.

Her parents even describe Pecola as ugly, because of their own self-hatred. Pecola's mother cares more for the white children of the family she works for, rather than her own daughter. Her mother takes out her insecurities onto Pecola, contributing to Pecola's loathing towards herself. She notices as her mother's love is directed toward the white kids, instead to her own black daughter.

Even the other children in her community agree to the ideology, putting the white girls on top and bullying Pecola because she was born black.

Pecola's dread to be white, overcomes her. She watches as white people are treated better and connects it to being loved. She believes that only if she has blue eyes, she will be beautiful and will be truly loved. She goes to fortune tellers asking for her wish to come true only to be rejected. She continues to hurt herself by wishing for blue eyes, even getting mad at God for making her how she is.

The harmful societal perspective of black people in the 1940s United States, leads to self-hatred. Through terrible experiences and the loss of a baby, Pecola ends up losing her mind. She gets to live her fantasy forever; finally getting her blue eyes. After so much trauma and pain, Pecola becomes a product of how colonialism has ruined the uniqueness of beauty.

Pecola becomes an image towards every young girl born in a white dominated world. Girls with different ethnic backgrounds and physical features that didn't agree with the white beauty norm. She is relatable, because everyone has wished to change something about themselves for a beauty standard. However, this wish and obsession with being "beautiful" can be more harmful than good.

In the end, The Bluest Eye explores the tragedy of white, colonial beauty and the destruction of self-love especially for the innocence of young girls. This novel brings the crucial discussion of accepting one's identity and their own beauty. Thankfully, the book contributes to the ongoing movement toward loving one-self and possibly taught people to understanding the beauty of being unique and belonging to their own cultures. Barbie dolls recently began to come in different shades, representing the beauty of other races and cultures. In Hollywood, we slowly see the immersion of famous actors, who are not white, contribute to the impact of cinema, and even inspire young children throughout the United States and other parts of the world. Although The Bluest Eye ends tragically, the horrific ending contributes to the important theme of love; therefore, it should be on everyone must read list.

Citations:

The Bluest Eye: Themes | SparkNotes

Toni Morrison’s Profound and Unrelenting Vision  | The New Yorker

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Imperialism or Colonialism?

How propaganda influenced colonialism and encouraged "The White Man's Burden."

“Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.)” - Julius Caesar

Our greatest conquerors and nations use the term "imperialism" to support their actions of taking control of another country, occupying it despite already having settlers, and exploiting it. These nations and people would coin the term "imperialism": a positive connotation for the negative actions behind their "colonialism". With their man-made word to support nationalism--the belief of increasing the man-determined nations, and power, yet destroying civilizations, and conforming past societies--they also used propaganda to influence their citizens toward the same ideology.

All throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, the United States of America did an amazing job of executing this skill of convincing their citizens to expand their territory, and to steal the lands of several preexisting societies. It started with the Louisiana Purchase, taking Native Americans lands, to the Mexican American war, where Mexican land and Texas were taken, and the annexation of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, taking preexisting nations as their own. The USA is not a stranger to the imperialistic attitude. They coined it the "Manifest Destiny," or used intimidating images of Uncle Sam to increase patriotism, and to increase their support toward their positive "colonialism."

In the following images, we are shown the iconic Uncle Sam. On his seat, we have the flag of the United States, with the poster in the back saying,” Civilization follows the FLAG.” The usage of the Uncle Sam and the flag is used to create a patriotic emotion. Uncle Sam is bigger, and older than the kids shown. His arm shows popping veins to define his masculinity and strength, emphasizing that these children are no match for the great, Uncle Sam, or the United States. Therefore, this image targets the American people, to promote nationalism, and to strengthen their support for imperialism.

To continue, Uncle Sam is seen grabbing a child with the label “Mexico” and attempts to force him to take a “pacification pill.” Mexico is depicted as violent, uncivilized, and disobedient, while the other four children behind Uncle Sam are depicted as the opposite. Uncle Sam attempts to force Mexico to look the same as Cuba, Philippines, Nicaragua, and Panama. The USA has been successful in taming these countries and making them civilized, according to the poster in the background. The civilized children are seen smiling, allowing viewers to believe that what the USA is doing is good, that the people of these nations are grateful that they can be just like the USA—fully clothes, proper, and clean (or anything but black). We can also see a racist aspect to the image. We see as Mexico and the Philippines are the only ones that are not white. We also are unsure of the expression on Philippines face, but he is seen pointing at the actions of Uncle Sam. However, it seems that he has not taken the pacification pill yet because he isn’t dressed like the other countries next to him. He is wearing different clothes, however, he isn’t resisting, maybe just accepting his fate and allowing the USA to take control.

Uncle Sam speaks to Mexico and says, “COME NOW! YOU’VE GOT TO TAKE IT SOONER OR LATER, AND YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE IT NOW.” He speaks in a commanding voice, demonstrating the very manly attitude of the USA, and to enforce their ideologies and political, societal beliefs onto these nations. This image supports the USA by allowing viewers to create their own racists attitude towards these nations--in order to be civilized, one must be taken in by the USA and be white.

In the end, it encourages the White Mans Burden, as Uncle Sam takes in his white man's job to take in these nations and "purify" them.

"...because it is the very nature of Imperialism to turn humans into beasts." - Che Guevara