While I was researching my article for the annotated bibliography I came across a group that the author of my source heads. It is called the 1696 Heritage Group and they are a “historical consulting firm dedicated to helping persons and institutions of color to increase their knowledge and access to the light of truth of their unique American heritage.” I wasn’t able to look at everything that their website had to offer but from what I saw they are very interesting and dedicated to their work, they even have a blog as well on their page. Aside from coming across their page while writing, I did not have any detours/difficulty summarizing and working through my article.
Author: William Linquata Page 2 of 3
Source:
Theresa M. Guzman-Stokes, “A Flag and a Family: Richard Gill Forrester, 1847-1906,” Virginia Cavalcade (Spring, 1998), 52-63.
Chicago Annotated Bibliography Format and Example:
While reading chapters seven and eight there was a lot of information on how segregation and unequal treatment/opportunities took the place of slavery when it was abolished. I discussed this same thing in my American Studies class, how during reconstruction there was a period in which Black people were almost treated normally before that quickly changed to the unfair treatment, they would have to endure for basically the next hundred years. When slavery was banned, segregation took its place and when segregation was banned, prejudice took its place. Even after Brown v. Board of Education and people and places could no longer use the excuse “separate but equal” there was still such racism and bias when it came to offerings and opportunities. One thing that I was reminded of which I had learned about in high school was also how poorly the governments treated Black neighborhoods from redlining and not giving people loans on houses, to outright destroying parts of them to make room for whatever project they might have needed space for.
Chapters 4-6 went into more depth about slavery and how it became more and more race-based and biased against Africans in the US. My American Studies class just finished a section in which we were discussing similar topics, including the idea of a wake and how slavery may be ended but it still affects people. Within these chapters, stories have been employed as a way to emphasize the dark past of not only the US but also Richmond. As I write my prep note I am looking at the cover of the book in which Richmond is on Fire; over parents’ weekend my parents and I went into Richmond and when we were walking on a bridge, we noticed there were quotes of Confederate generals and Richmond citizens celebrating this destruction when they were forced to give up Richmond to the Union. I feel all these horrible stories act as a dark guide of how this all came to be and show how contrasting history is to the present, although history still seems to bleed through in some places.
The first two chapters recount how violent the European colonizers were when taking land in the Americas. They stripped the Natives of their land, resources, lives and humanity because they viewed them as savages and the Pope seamed them enemies of Christianity. They did not care about what they were doing and saw nothing wrong with it, as it was just a race against the other European powers. Although not every explorer did this, the majority did as they only sought personal gain. Reading this has built on what I have already been taught in school. I took a religion elective my Senior year called Native American Spirituality which introduced me to this information. Reading it here has given me more specific dates and accounts of the atrocities that were endured. It doesn’t seem real and is concerning how blinded they were whilst doing these acts.
The Richmond Juvenile Detention Center’s Post-D Program offers many services to those in the program and there are criteria people have to meet to be in the program; they then have to go through an approval process. McConnell’s article talked about how after the increase of youth incarceration with no chance of parole due to minors being sentenced like, or even worse, than adults, it is finally on the decline. This is because people have realized that their brains aren’t fully developed and they have a better chance of being rehabilitated. It made sense to me that dealing with the issues at the root, within the community, was the solution that the people in the video and articles were working toward. However, I found it interesting that the plan was to create more prison centers within these communities. To answer who the incarcerated youth are, they are both violent and sometimes nonviolent offenders from the ages of 14-21 who are sentenced to juvenile life without parole. Most of the ones in Bon Air are from the eastern region of VA, about 75% are from towns 1+ hour away from the facility.
I think that I have made progress toward the class goals as I look for many opportunities to share in class but I also try my best to keep everyone in mind during discussions. In regards to the Endeavor goals and their questions, I think that I am making good progress toward the class goal of utilizing writing as a tool for reflection. These prep notes as well as class notes/class note responses have helped me to work on explaining and elaborating about my thoughts and experiences. My learning philosophy statement would probably be that learning is best done through hands-on experiences and reflection of said experiences followed by reflection of my personal thoughts but then more importantly the thoughts of my instructor or expert in whatever field I am learning about.
- Question for McConnell:
- How did you and your law students assist in the parole of those 17 youth offenders?
Differences between Prof. Dolson’s teaching style and Dr. Coogan’s
- Dr. Coogan – more rigid, get an assignment, turn it in, get feedback, and rework.
- Prof. Dolson – more of a flow, not specific
- see this post for a detailed explanation
At what points did the discussion feel awkward?
- Kaylee – when she asked about social services.
- Terence asked if anyone had been in a similar situation as him, and he noted that there were no black people in our class. Kaylee actually did grow up in a similar situation to him, she wasn’t asking from an outside/above perspective but actually, she just wanted to hear his opinions because
- Context plays an important role when asking these questions
- Julia – witnessing the dynamic between Dr. Coogan and Terence and Kelvin, him “shushing them.”
What did Terence view as bad with social services?
- Its just so different of a service now vs. when it could have affected him.
What is the assumption/cultural views about white women when it comes to black men?
- Bad things can happen, for example, the woman calling the cops on a man just watching birds.
- Karen – a stereotype and narrative in our culture
- Prof. Dolson and her friend on parents telling them what to do if they ever got lost.
- “If you get lost find a policeman” vs. “go and find an older woman.”
- Completely different scripts
- Prof. Dolson was having a hard time making Terence feel welcome because he took what she was doing as hovering. She told him however that she is a mom, and she makes people feel welcome by feeding them, and he started laughing and understood why she was doing what she was doing.
When we share a personal story, it sets a different tone and a different level of trust.
- It allows for a different kind of conversation.
Family
- Your family is still your family.
- They put out things about their family exactly as it is
- Nick – if someone calls out one of your family members since you identify so closely with your family, it then feels like they’re calling you out.
Identity – your family is such a big part of your identity, and once you start college you get away from that part of your identity and you get a chance to view that part from a different perspective.
Do you (international students) have thoughts/questions about American culture?
- Angelos had a bigger culture shock coming here compared to when he went to Singapore when he was sixteen
- He saw a lot of ignorance and privilege, which led to a lot of assumptions and stereotypes leading to his culture shock
- Greece is much more homogenous, whereas people in the US feel they are already diverse simply because they are around different cultures
- Wesley doesn’t consider himself a typical Chinese, he uses a VPN to access information that a lot of Chinese don’t; ways of entertainment are different, but lifestyles are very similar between the two cultures.
When we were telling our stories from our childhoods in the first week, the goal was to get to know each other and create a level of trust. We’re going to go back to that with our memoirs,
- Personal storytelling – We are going to “work up” one of our stories, we will pick one of our childhood stories and expand on it
Realness
- Mitch – Since they chose what to put in their story ten years ago and now, we got to hear from them in real life with no filter it was so much more real, and even their talking about it couldn’t be everything they wanted to share.
- You can only say so much, but they were so animated and loud
- Javier – They commented how much more there was to their lives, but they kept them out because they didn’t want it to become embellished.
What was important about having the opportunity to tell their story and then come talk to us?
- It’s real it’s messy, uncomfortable, and sometimes funny; you feel good when you make a connection
- We are so privileged that when reading written text, we can lose the power of oral storytelling
- Looking for shaping and impact → close textual analysis
- Why is that an academic discipline?
- Brice – It helps you to connect your own world and personal experience/perspectives to other things
- Mitch – science is much more rigid whereas English is a lot more interpretive, free form, less boundary
- Why is that an academic discipline?
- WOWO was a nonfiction memoir
- It is a memoir, it is a book, but it’s not a novel because it’s not fiction
- In the past priests were taught to read so that they could pass down the knowledge of the bible or religious text so they would tell the stories and interpret them for the people
- When the printing press happened people could get the book for themselves and have their own interpretations but people also stopped telling the stories orally
- Collegiate Gothic
- Place of learning
- Following in a long line of people who are learning storytelling.
- Learn more: quick note on current higher education
- Learn more: monasteries and writing (scriptorium)
Our class focus going forward:
- Focusing on language and our interpretation of stories
- Learning from experience, peers, writing, and reading
- Our portfolios will be process portfolios
- Several pieces where we’ll quote ourselves about a certain quote.
Reflection Questions:
- Look at the number next to my name in the blog, how many times have I written to the blog? What were those like? What are some other opportunities to contribute to the blog that I will have in the future?
- Have you gone back and read the class notes yet? If so when? How might it be helpful to read them?
- Have you read other people’s prep notes? Is that something you would want to do? What would be the effect of doing that? Have you commented on someone else’s prep note?
- Thinking about the assignment instructions for the analysis essay how many times did you read them?
- Thinking about the content of the class, what interests you the most? Is there something you might do to pursue that further?
I agree to the Class Commitments
Class Commitments – Storytelling and Identity – Fall 2023 (richmond.edu)
- What was your thought process behind the idea of this book and the strategy of collecting stories and weaving them together?
- Is there anything you want to tell us now that we’ve not only had an opportunity to read your story but now we can hear firsthand from you?
- Why did you go along with this idea, what made you stick it out?
Reading the poem about compost was very visual, some parts more than others. It gave me memories in different senses, one of them being my sense of smell and one of them being my sense of touch. When the poem was taking about fire and the compost pile itself, I could imagine the smell of fire as well as the compost pile because I have worked with compost before. I could also imagine the feeling of the corn husks, when it described what went into the compost pile, as my family husks and eats a lot of corn in the summertime.
The relation between burning and compost was interesting as we noted that they both bring about something new. I noted that decomposition reflects that the only absolute in life is death. Everything that was put in the compost came from different places, but they all meld together to form something new. Angelos’ point was very interesting, he said, we are similar to compost, being made of several things for example: our experiences, relationships, families, etc., the combination of this all helps to shape us as people. Essays are also similar in a way because of their parts: the introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion. The thesis is what eventually brings an essay all together, kind of like heat in a compost pile as it all relates to the thesis.
Next in class, we shared our compost heaps, about the person’s story we were most intrigued by, with a classmate. For me and my partner we both decided to write about Kelvin and so we noticed similar quotes. We also noticed similar themes shared by our person as well as other people’s stories. To finish class, we did briefly cover our future meeting with Dr. Coogan and Kelvin and we were tasked with creating questions to have ready to ask, as it is more awkward to sit in silence than ask an “uncomfortable” question.