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Seven Poems to Read for Black History Month
Fact Check: What Trump Got Wrong at His Rally
"The Choice 2016" --PBS documentary about the 2016 election and the making of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
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ReplyDeletebefore I even read the article about Trump's rally, I am already wondering why Trump holds a rally after he is president?
Deleteright now, I'm wondering if the election would have turned out differently if everyone who voted watched this documentary first.
DeleteThe rally could just be to make him feel good about himself.
DeleteEspecially since otherwise things are NOT going well for him!
you're probably right, Stella. last time I checked, he was hated by every last one of the 65,844,954 Clinton voters. (the last time I checked was like, 5 seconds ago.)
DeleteI also found a very interesting page on CNN called the trump promise tracker. here's the link: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/tracking-trumps-promises/
Delete(This is coming from Taka, if it doesn't say my name up there)
DeleteMy opinion is that it is very unusual that Trump is having rallies after he was elected president. I just don't understand the purpose of having a rally after he was elected president. I also don't understand the true purpose of constantly criticizing the free press over and over again. Maybe it is just to make himself look better to his supporters, or maybe its or financial gain. I feel as if Trump is taking the role of an fascist leader when doing these rallies and criticizing the media.
i think that it isn't as much treatening the media as it is name-calling. ex: failing nytimes, FAKE NEWS websites
Deletebut i'm really interested by that theory if how it might be financial gain. do you mean this because you think that he is going to get the media corporations to pay him in order for him to stop criticizing him, or something else?
DeleteI thought that the 7 poems to read for black history month was interesting. my favorite poem was let america be america again
ReplyDeleteWhat did you like about it, Quinn?
DeleteI agree with Quinn, my favorite was also "let America be America again" because it tells you that there is this fantasy that everyone has who doesn't already live in America. They all think it's this free place, but really it's not. There is so many things that are wrong with this country, and no one is stopping it. Does that show that it's free? Does people dying for no reason suit the definition of free? No, so let's make America what it's known to be. FREE
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts here, Abbie! Do you think Hughes gives us an idea of how America can live up to its idealized image of "the land of the free"? Does he refer to things that ARE good about America that he thinks we should encourage in ourselves? How do you think America needs to change to live up to its image?
DeleteWhen Hughes writes "O, let America be America again—
DeleteThe land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—" he is saying that if you treat others as free, and you can live side by side, you can be free side by side. But, if you are sexist, racist, or homophobic, you are never free, you are trapped by your thoughts.
Also, in American History by Michael S. Harper, I remembered a book about those two deaths. It makes me realize that, once you actually get to know the people, you realize how crazy and cruel the things people do to others.
*Elaboration on my pice about Hughes:
DeleteI think that because you think that others are not as "free" as you, you are constantly afraid of them becoming more powerful or more respected. If you are afraid all the time, you can never enjoy your freedom.
Thanks Leila! Another angle to look at it is, can the people DOING the oppressing be truly free themselves in such a society?
DeleteI think Langston is saying that the oppressors should let go, look at the big picture and realize this irrational and meaningless anger doesn't get them anywhere. People should realize that accepting the fate that's handed to you can be a good thing, and that fate is that they are American, and they have to be free along with others, because that's what the true America should be. If people let go of hate, you can live your life in bliss, without the stress of watching your neighbors every move.
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Ha ha ha!
I like all the poems a lot. They were tough to read but i took some time to sort of understand and get the idea of each of them. I like how all of the poems are about black history but each one is totally unique and different. I liked "Won't you celebrate with me" most. it has a lot of imagery and really beautiful language of metaphors.
ReplyDeleteWhat images and metaphors did you like? What did they make you think about?
DeleteI liked what Safiya Sinclair said about the poem: "I have carried this sonnet—both an ode to the self and also an act of resistance—inside me like gospel, like armor." Have you ever remembered a song lyric or poem and used it "like armor"?
DeleteI have used several songs like armor.
DeleteAlso, some of those poems WERE hard to read and understand...
DeleteI think that when Safiya Sinclair says she uses songs like armor, it means that she finds a part of a song that is meaningful in that certain time, and uses it like a mantra, almost, to protect herself. this is a very interesting thing to do, and i can see how it would work.
DeleteIt does work. When you get nervous or discouraged or are just feeling down, you can always remember your song mantra and simply Get Back Up Again.
DeleteI would have loved to read the poems but the website seemed to have changed since you sent out the link. Instead I choose to read the article about Trump called Fast check what Trump got wrong at his rally. I enjoyed this article because I found it interesting that Trump didn't really switch up his rally strategy still saying crazy things with fifth grade vocabulary. I also wanted to share the article that I did my current events home work on. It's a New York Times article called black lives white lies and Emmett Till. The article is about Emmett Till who was killed unjustly and brutalized because of a lie told by a white women. I liked that article because I really enjoy reading about black history and I thought it was something no one in the class would do their writing about. This killing was also a large stepping stone to help civil rights because it embarrassed the us infront of other countries which made them make an effort to better the lives of African Americans. This boy was murdered at the age of 14 an age close to most of our own.
ReplyDeleteThe poetry website is working again! Check it out!
DeleteLooking back at that page...I think it's actually a lot lower than fifth grade vocabulary. Not trying to brag, but I remember having a better vocabulary than that in fifth grade...
DeleteThanks Maddox! I think the poetry site is undergoing maintenance so it's down right now. Hopefully it will be back online soon.
ReplyDeletePlease post the link to the article about Emmett Till. It's such a disturbing and important story.
I liked the poem,"A Brief History of Hostility," because it talks about how whenever we want to have peace we have to fight to get it, but not always physically sometime mentally and sometimes you have to fight by giving your opnion. Although, before to get peace you had to fight and many people would get hurt. I like how this had to do with black history because back in the days slavery was a very big thing, and those slaves had to work for other people who sometimes didn´t treat them well. Now today people are still getting treated badly and that´s why I also liked, "Let America Be America Again." I liked this poem because it relates to the other poem by talking about how people always dreamed of coming to America and being able to have a good life with a good job when there are people that are getting payed badly when they are working. This reminds you how not everyone has freedom.
ReplyDeleteTrump does not know what he is saying. When he was having meetings with other banks, people noticed that he did not know what he is saying. They noticed this through what what he was saying and his body language. He clearly did not take business in college. In his election, this trait still sticks with him. He said rude, inappropriate, and offensive things. He just lets things come out of his mouth and he shows with his body language that he does not care.
ReplyDeleteI learned this from "The Choice." They mentioned how Trump did not understand the importance of what the banks were saying during his meetings.
Delete"Photography For Passion" is Sam Ullman.
I have just read the Fact Check on the Trump victory rally and it is just terrible what he is saying. I'm concerned that Trump's helpers on generating his "evidence" he uses are just not qualified to give him support on his crazy and false ideas. His helpers should take those pushes down to cancel out another one of these kind of articles. And of course criticism from regular people. The funniest thing is is that before he says a ton of lies, Trump says: "We are here today to tell the truth, the whole truth". By the way, I am watching the Sean Spicer briefing, it is disrespect.
ReplyDeleteI read the "7 poems to read for black history month", and I thought - although I thought all of the poems were amazing - that "won't you celebrate with me" was my favorite. I do completely agree with Abbie and Quinn that "let america be america again" is great, but I still liked "won't you celebrate with me" better. I loved how Lucille Clifton wrote about how she was born a "...non-white and a woman" but then followed up with the meaning of the poem - celebrating the fact that she has made it through life, and done everything on her own, "shaped (it) into a kind of life", and gets to say that she did it well, and is proud of it. It is a very empowering poem, about equal rights for gender and race, and the fact that she can celebrate a good life.
ReplyDeleteI agree, She is fighting the fight life made her fight, but she is still able to feel joy, and she is able to celebrate in the boxing ring.
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DeleteYes!
DeleteAnd if you knock knock me over, I wil Get Back Up Again!
(Sorry, couldn't help myself...)
My favorite poem was "won't you celebrate with me" I chose this poem because of one sentence that stood out to me, "both nonwhite and woman." To me this sentence stood out because it shows how she was born into a life of segregation and disrespect. She is proud of herself. She was born in bad conditions and she still believes in herself. She is very confident and she is taking control of who she can be. She makes it sound like a victory that nobody has succeeded to kill her. She says everyday something tries to kill her, she is optimistic and celebrating how she has not yet been killed.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the poem let america be america again. I think this poem is mostly about how everyone is supposed to be free and yet slavery and segregation was the opposite. America is supposed to be a free country. The poem describes america as a place where you are free and have liberty. This is another very optimistic poem in the begging, it starts with just what america is supposed to be like, the country you dream about and has justice and liberty. Near the end it shows how America didn't live up to the standard, the slavery scars, having greed just to have it, and not giving a chance to desperate, hungry, and humble people.
I agree, like I said before, freedom was what the people had dreamed of and america isn't like this.
ReplyDeleteThis is from Ivan, who wasn't able to post under his account:
ReplyDeleteI thought that "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes was my favorite. It portrayed a man that endured the brutality and hostility of others for centuries, and was able to remember what life used to be like. I like how Hughes displays the contrast between the 'past America' and the 'present tense America', and how it inspires people to want to change our country to how it used to be, glamorous and dreamlike, as it appears in the poem.
I read "Fact Check: What Trump Got Wrong At His Rally" and I can now provide further evidence supporting how Trump does not know what he is saying. When he says things that are not true at his rallies, his supporters don't know better and suddenly, what he says becomes true... or people think what he says is true.
ReplyDeletei like it because it is what we need to do. we need to stop being something that is not ourselves and be something better. unlike Trump
ReplyDeleteI watched “The Choice”, a documentary on PBS that aired before the election. It described both candidates in depth. I was surprised that the documentary was so unbiased. The creators presented basic information about the careers and personal lives of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. However, I did notice that the documentary had more to say about Clinton. This is probably because she has had a longer career in public service. The documentary did not change my view that Clinton would have been a better president because she supports so many causes that I believe in myself and because she has a lot more experience.
ReplyDeleteI liked "won't you celebrate with me" because it shows strength to black women and how they had to struggle everyday to be themselves. I like the line "something has tried to kill me
ReplyDeleteand has failed" because to me it means that something or someone tried to make her feel bad about herself and the way she was and she stood up for herself. The fact that she says that we should celebrate that everyday says that she is proud. I thought this poem was inspiring and thoughtful.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/opinion/black-lives-white-lies-and-emmett-till.html
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Deleteha ha
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/opinion/black-lives-white-lies-and-emmett-till.html?_r=0 I hope this link works it is the link for the Emmett Till article i wrote about earlier and i will be reading the poems shortly.
ReplyDeleteI was happy that you choose to include poems about black history for extra credit this month which happens to be black history month. My favorite of the poems is called "Middle Passage" by Robert Hayden. I enjoyed this poem because it explores the forgotten horror of slavery explaining how awful the conditions on the slave ships were and that all the slaves could do was hope and pray. The slaves were becoming sickly rebellious and suicidle on the slave ships not knowing what fate they would meet where they were headed. Sickness spread through the slaves like wild fire having no space to spread out each individual crammed in like sardines in a metal tin. Their conditions were more than in human when they used the bathroom they couldn't get rid of it and pee and poop would flood the under level where the slaves were. One might ask why didn't the slaves organize a rebellion thy outnumbered the crew by a lot it happened a good amount of times but it was hard to organize a protest because not all the slaves on the ship speak the same language Africa was very much and still is a tribal land and languages were only shared by people that were in the same tribe. The boat was nothing compared to the the fate they met in America. As a black boy i really enjoy learning about my people and what there fate has been in history. I also look forward to learning a lot more about black history in class also!
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DeleteI hope we learn more bout that too...
Deleteespecially the pee and poop, but the rest is also interesting...
I also read another interesting article about Trumps decisions called "Barring the white house news corps from the white house" by Brendan Smialowski This is about Trumps recent decision to ban several popular news organizations that release bad information about him from press briefings. Trump has banned The NY Times, CNN, Politico, buzzfeed news and the Los Angeles Times. This doesn't mean that the NY Times among other news organizations won't be able to release articles about Trump it only means that they can not attend any briefings. Although I view this move predictable because of Trumps previous issues with these news outlets it's also hypocritical move. It's hypocritical because Sean Spicer had claimed earlier in december that the Trump white house would never ban a news outlet. These News outlets are not only liberal but are very popular country and internationaly speaking. I found this article interesting because I get a lot of my news from the NY times and I trust it for my news.
ReplyDeleteIt is really extraordinary what Trump and his people are doing in regards to the press. Why do you think so many of his supporters are seemingly ok with it? (His favoribility rating right now is 44%. That's quite low compared to other modern presidents at this point in their presidency, but it's still 44%!)
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/opinion/barring-the-white-house-press-corps-from-the-white-house.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article This is the link for that article about the Ny times
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ReplyDeleteI really liked "Won't You Celebrate With Me."
ReplyDeletePutting aside why I like the word "celebrate" (you can figure it out yourselves anyway), I think the message is inspiring. The message, as I read it, is that she (the author) is celebrating herself, her life, her achievements, and that she's survived as long as she has in a world that's against her for being "both nonwhite and a woman." I especially liked the part at the end that said "come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed." Go Lucille Clifton! And if you knock knock me over, I will Get Back Up Again!!
(Sorry, couldn't help it.)
I also read "Fact Check: What Trump Got Wrong At His Rally." And WHOA, he really got a LOT of things wrong! Are these mistakes because of his colossal stupidity or deliberate lies? Either way, I actually felt happy after I read about them. If he's saying so many things that are completely wrong, and is being caught so easily...add that up with problems he's already having with various scandals, the large number of people that are against him, and many many many many many other things he's done that very few people liked...well, it's only a matter of time until he gets impeached.
ReplyDeleteI read the article about trumps reelection rally and I think that it is crazy that he compared himself to such amazing historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Sure trump has spoken out against the media like Jefferson and Lincoln but he has only spoken out against the media about his tweets. His tweets are not a way for him to speak out against the media and all he has done was told news broadcasters who most people believe bring raw news that what they were saying was fake because they were giving points of view that trump did not support. On the other hand Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln fought against the media because they wanted people to think another way about what the majority of people in America thought about racial equality to make our country a better place. Also if trump were alive in the time of Lincoln and the time of Jefferson (Though he probably still thinks that they are alive like Fredrick Douglass) I'm guessing that he would not support their ideas for racial equality in our country.
I agree with Isaac. Trump is racist, Lincoln was opposed to slavery. If Trump actually thinks he can compare himself to Lincoln and Jefferson, he's not just delusional, he's insane.
DeleteI agree with Isaac and Stella. Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, which are the two amazing historical figures. While Trump just creates drama.
DeleteI think you've got the wrong idea of Jefferson's attitudes towards race. He owned, bought, and sold many slaves throughout his lifetime. He had children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings, but didn't free their children. And he did not support ending slavery when he was in power.
DeleteOver break I went to the New York film festival and there was a short about a six year old who's parents were undocumented workers from Mexico and the girl became an actavist and gave the pope a note. She also made a speech at the woman's march
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! What was it called? That sounds like the kind of thing it might be good to watch in class. Anyone know of others that are out of the theaters? Or Maddox I wonder if the film will be showing in theaters for a possible class trip.
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