Raising Crown Heights Post 6

        Estivel Garcia

        “I have tried everything; I don’t know what else to do. Nobody listen to me!”
These are the last words of an African American teenager who was desperate, disappointed and bound to commit violence against the society in the poorest neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. Living around a Jewish community who also were discriminated by whites, a young black boy discovers that his white history teacher is dealing drugs in the school (It’s an irony and a contradiction because he traits blacks like animals, and he is extremely racist). In the other hand, there is a dilemma between Jewish and African Americans in the building where he lives. The Jewish man that collects the rent is racist and he’s blaming blacks as irresponsible, dirties, and that they had contaminated the neighborhood with drugs, but the irony is that, he also consumes drugs and he had a black man living in the basement with poor condition in the darkness like an animal. The same happen to blacks, they are judging Jewish for their misfortune too.

        The mother of the young black boy tells him to find a job, to forget school for later, because they need money.  This is a straight connection to Little Scarlet and Easy Rowling’s son, who forgot about school and went to work because the society and the educational system pushed him to do so. As we discussed in class, cash and anger forced the boy to steal a white woman’s purse for money. This woman is a Jewish news reporter who struggles to recognize her own race; she also wants to know the causes of boy’s behaviors. Psychologically, we can see how behavior and anger leaves the house and head to streets, causing the riots. The same way the necessity pushes people to act violently in and out of home. The system is corrupted, and teachers and even the principal of the school were dealing drugs with their own students. His sister was murder because of the influence of drugs around the neighborhood and no one did anything, he tried to make justice by himself so he and the rest of the students kidnapped the teacher in the room. Police and nobody didn’t care about a death African American woman, and they didn’t care about the feeling and voice of a black man. “”You can scream whatever you want, but you won’t be heard because you are black.  They will believe a white man” the teacher said.

Poem Little Scarlet... Post 5

Estivel Garcia

We have discussed a lot of themes in Little Scarlet’s book and Easy Rawlings investigation about Nola’s death, but one of the topics I was most interested was Harold’s guilt. The poem found by Rawlings (Page 152). It said….

“Dirty girls get much in their eye

They eat maggots and die

Break brains bad things bad things

They all die down in my pantry”

It was evident that Harold killed Nola. Each of these words represent Nola’s shot in the eye, “eat maggots” (white man) and the deathly strangulation (break brains). The police targeted a white man as responsible for Nola’s death, but ironically, during such race riot, during such period of violence between two races, the main responsible was a homeless black man, a poor African man from the streets who knows how to write a poem and kills people (especially black women) without suspicion. Harold seems to have an interesting background throughout his life because he’s not illiterate. In some way, Harold punishes black women for being around with whites. Black and whites were segregated, riots and violence were in people’s blood, and Harold was attacking the enemy (whites) by killing black women who becomes the lover of the people who discriminate them. But “revenge” is the word that describes the actions against his own community. As we discussed in class, I believe it’s very true that sexual attraction, touches and the union of two lovers from different races and skin color had the power for revolution.

Reflection "In Darkness and Confusion" Post 4

Estivel Garcia

           For this post, I will talk about the story “In Darkness and Confusion”, William Jones and his wife and niece live in an apartment in the highest part of the building. It was the common life of African Americans who lived in the poorest neighborhoods of Harlem.  The story focuses on William Jones who was depressed and suffering an emotional crisis because of his son’s absence. William fell proud of his son Sam for finishing high school and for working to save money for college, but it was wartime and he was drafted to the south. He was sent to a camp in Georgia. William wasn’t so worry about Sam being in the army, but he was worry because Sam was sent to the south. Everybody knows racism, discrimination and segregation was more intense there than any other place in United States. People didn’t like “niggers”. They don’t treat well black people. For me, I was more interested about the situation of Sam and William. Both of them represent one. Sam was making the road for success because education and hard work would save his life in a country dominated by white supremacy, and discrimination toward African Americans. But he was drafted to war; his dream was death as well as William’s soul. He was a father who hoped a change for his son. William was devastated. He was death symbolically and he represented Sam’s collapse. I ask myself, what is the meaning of fighting for nothing? African Americans were drafted to war, but it didn’t change discrimination against them, it didn’t change the fact that they were mistreated and segregated in the same army. It is a big contradiction that they were fighting in favor of the enemy (white). It was a war with not benefits. Black had limited rights. The war took his son away for becoming successful. It’s absurd! 

Newspapers Influence and Crowds (Post 3)

 Estivel Garcia

In this blog, I am going to discuss some of the important points about the significance of newspapers in Handover; Or the Persecution of the Lowly (Pages 11-17) and the “Crowds”.

Newspaper was considered as an instrument to controls people’s mind. It was a social technology tool and a powerful media that manipulated people’s opinions and behaviors by delivering different kinds of ideologies. The chapter of the Wilmington Record stated that “it has the power for evil and for good”.  Everything depends on who was the newspaper attacking. It was good for whites or black if it was supporting one these groups. Otherwise, it was be evil. American wasn’t united, blacks and whites has different thoughts. The passage promotes the interests of black Americans.  According to the chapter in page 16, “The negro, like the white man, likes to read something good of himself”. The editor told the reality of the racial discrimination, but white citizens weren't happy with the article.  White community disagreed about this message that support African Americans. They feared about the Negro Domination, one of their most popular excuses that never existed. There was also a connection between the newspapers and presentation that the professor gave in class about “The Race Riot: the profiteers, In this case newspapers strongly attacked African Americans with symbolic violence, calling them black monsters. 
         

          In the other hand, the final part of the film “The Day of the Locust” was very tragic and dramatic. It’s not just fiction, but it is a natural behavior that happens in real life. For a single crime, a whole crowed got crazy fighting, looting, destroying and killing each other. In comparison with to the act of violence in the film, I have seen similar cases in the news, where a burglar is captured by someone, and instead of calling the police, the whole neighborhood acts like animals, lynching the criminal to his dead and unconsciously, making justice for themselves. Crowd is a symbol of violence and destruction and people love that. A lot of heads thinking differently in a turbulent atmosphere, creates violence if there is no control. Some people make violence because of ignorance, they enjoy it creating chaos or for their ideologies. 

Violence in America - Lynchings blog Two

Estivel Garcia


After the Civil War and during the Reconstruction period, a time of modernism, violence and the rise of white supremacy increased drastically against the Negro population, it took place principally in south and across the country starting from 1860s to 1968. Lynching was a modern way of killing black people practiced by the white man and justifying their actions by giving convenient and fallacious excuses. According to Zizek‘s term, subjective and symbolic violence was clearly performed by white supremacy against the colored men and women. Despite the Civil War ended and all slaves were freed during the emancipation proclamation in 1863, southern white men blame Black people for economic loss, social privilege and for being responsible for the war.  White man had a fear that African American could gain more political power in the society.

Even the slaves were granted with freedom and a flash of hope and opportunity; it was not enough to ensure a protection against discrimination, oppression, corruption and violence against them. The granting of civil rights created anxieties among white citizens. Lynching were the white man solution to terrorized African American by killing them, and spreading a message of who superiority.  The federal government didn’t put their hands over this abuse; they also were participated in complicity with the lynchings as systemic violence. White men justified their excuses by saying that Blacks would rape their wives, negro domination in political term, and it was a necessity of the white man to repress and stamp out alleged race riots in the civilized world.

Some of the pictures of lynching that we saw on class show how all white citizens including children participated in the event of killing African Americans as a response of supremacy. Wealthy people, middle and working class people enjoyed murdering Negroes in front of everyone, by hanging them up in the street lamp or burning them down and laughing as being something pleasurable and normal.

Estivel New Post ENN195

Estivel Garcia

It is incredible how all the people of New York City lived during such violent time in the 1840s. In the movie “Gangs of New York”, the state of New York was controlled by the power of gangs and rich people.  There was an arduous war between American citizens and the new Irish immigrants who came to the neighborhoods of New York escaping from the Great potato famine and to get more opportunities. The Natives American and the Dead Rabbits, an Irish immigrant gang, faced a deadly dispute due to the increased of immigrants to the Five Points, power, no job opportunities and corruption.

People set the streets on fire and then steal properties because there was no kind of public welfare, no protection from police and government, and no rules. People were out of control and scared during such economic depression in 1837. The city was a chaos; people lived in bad conditions with no sanitation, there were too much violence in the streets and economic unfairness. Many immigrants came to the United States for the American dream, looking for freedom, properties and rights. But at the end many people were disappoint because of the political corruption that didn’t fight poverty and protect the working class.  During the Civil war, many men were draft to war but only those who could pay three hundred dollars stayed out of war. Only the working class went to battle.  People saw naturals right as a lie.

At the end of the movie, “Gangs of New York” it could be appreciated how industrialization had change the society over the years. People don’t even know how the city of New York was built. The true history of the city is been forgotten and buried under the evolution of a new city.