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Heyy, I Know How to Look At Details Now

In this class I have learned how to research and approach sources (both primary and secondary) differently. Before, I looked at everything holistically, I noticed details and I used details but they were never the forefront of my focus. I was always focused on the big “theme” of whatever I was looking at. Now I have learned to look at the finer details of whatever it is that I am looking at, especially with primary sources. 

In high school, I had to use primary sources as evidence in my history essays, and my biggest area of struggle was using pictures and paintings to defend my point. 

Take this picture for example (a painting of Cardinal Richelieu depicting “how” he helped orchestrate chaos during the Thirty Years War), when I had this source for my AP European History Exam, I refused to use it. I did not have enough confidence in my ability adequately flush out all the details that would make my argument stronger. Now though (3 years later), I think I could flush out what needs to be fleshed in order to write and develop a good, strong argument. This class helped a lot with that.

Now, is pulling out details still not easy for me? Yes, heck yes, but I don’t think that will change, and as it is, I don’t think I want it to change. If this process becomes easy then I think the details that I do notice will start to lose their meaning to me, which is what I don’t want. I need to have those “A-HA!” moments, or else it’s just not worth it to me. The deeper meaning is gone and I’m left bored. 

So as far as process goes, the thing that I really needed to work on was details, and get everything I can from the most minute of things, even if it is just one word, and now I think I can do that. I think I have proven that I can do that. One glaring example of this would be how the word “amenable” is used in the 287(g) document and how I target that word choice to defend my point. Before this class I never would have even thought of looking at that, but now (hopefully) this type of thought process will be a mainstay in my academic writing, and maybe even beyond that.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act. n.d. March 2021. <https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g>.

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For Consideration: American Culture is the Erasure of Others (Part 2)

I think the most impactful moment I had because of this class did not even happen in class or while doing an assignment for this class, but while I was having a conversation with my step-dad about one of our readings (“How to Tame the Wild Tongue”) and my subsequent blog post (”For Consideration: American Culture is the Erasure of Others”). At the time of this conversation, I hadn’t seen my step-dad in about a month? Two months? Something like that. I talk to him on the phone every week, but as far as seeing him face to face, it had been a while. So, when he caught wind that I was coming home for the weekend, I was essentially left no other choice but to see him. That led us to having some hot dogs and ice cream (I got a large cone and he got a peanut buster parfait) at Dairy Queen at about 4:30 on a Sunday while I was trying to make my way back to school. I remember that the table we were at was in the sun, and it seemed way too warm to be inside but I couldn’t really complain because Steve (my step-dad) had picked the table. 

(Large Ice Cream Cone)

(Peanut Buster Parfait)

We started talking about school, which led to me talking about “How to Tame the Wild Tongue”, and how it made me think. I had thoughts on not just article, but also on the broader ideas associated with what was written about. What I mean by that is that I explained to him what it was about, about how the author grew up in a community that wanted her to be or do one thing or another, and how no matter what she did she was disappointing someone. But I also talked about how the things that Anzaldua wrote about, the idea of being in a type of borderland, is one that I have lived my entire life. For some people, I will always be too white to be able to claim any sort of blackness, for others I am too black to claim my whiteness. I have existed in this borderland. And to bring proof of this I talked about the lady who asked if I was “albino” and how even if she meant “mulatto” that term is not any better (and if you look at the historical context of the word it’s probably even worse, because “albino” just screams ignorance “mulatto” was meant to cause a lot more harm). I also talked about how in a room full of white people, everyone I grew up with saw me as black, which is not inherently bad but it still creates that feel of different which is something I never asked for or wanted. But even with this evidence, Steve did not understand my main point of our entire conversation (which was that differences need to be embraced in a way where someone does not have to give up one aspect of themselves to be seen as not different). Steve is of the mindset that part of the “American Dream” is to give up your past to conform, citing that people who came over at the turn of the 20th Century did that and see how they thrived. Steve did not here a word that I said. In that moment it hit me how accurate and how important the title of my blog post was. “For Consideration: American Culture is the Erasure of Others.” Let’s think about that for a moment. People have to give up their homes, their friends, and probably their families in order to come here to hopefully live a better life. When they get to America, even though it is not “official” policy, it is a social one, these people are expected to give up their language, their traditions, their accent (THE WAY THAT THEY SPEAK!) , and their culture to live the American experience. America, which boasts about being a melting pot, forces the people who bring cultural diversity to conform and stop being diverse. These are all things that I have known for a while, people like labels and boxes and hate when others cannot fit in a label or a box. But talking to Steve and seeing that even he falls for that just made it all the more real.

           I think the most important experience I can reflect on because of this class, the moment where my meaning for this class “clicked”, was when I talked to Steve about “How to Tame the Wild Tongue” and how real the idea that so many other people and cultures are subdued for the sake of conformity, and how much I hate it and how much I want to change it.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’ (1987).” Available Means, pp. 357–365., doi:10.2307/j.ctt5hjqnj.57.

Techau, Jacqueline. “For Consideration: American Culture Is the Erasure of Others.” ENGL 1102 Research, 2 Mar. 2021, jacquelinesresearch.tumblr.com/post/644559487713378305/for-consideration-american-culture-is-the-erasure.

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The Staples of Writing (AKA My Favorite Things About Writing)

“The Case FOR ‘Latinx’” seems to use most, if not all, of the staples of writing shown in the reference documents. The most obvious case of Scharron-del Rio and Aja involving these ideas in their writing is through their use of evidence to create an argument. In the argument handout, in the section on evidence, the authors of this handout claim (notice my use of a signal word) that the use of evidence and the strength of that evidence “can make or break your argument.” We see this in the Latinx article. For example, in the section on “Linguistic Imperialism”, Scharron-del Rio and Aja use their evidence about Spanish being the agent of “linguistic imperialism” for centuries. Without having strong evidence like that, their entire argument would have fallen through.

Additionally, we can see Scharron-del Rio and Aja thesis in the introduction of the article in the paragraph beginning with, “As scholars…” While this is not the typical sentence structure that at least I am used to as a thesis, it does accomplish the first strategy for what a thesis statement can be, as shown in the handout (“It makes a definite and limited assertion that needs to be explained and supported by further discussion”). The authors are making the assertion is that conversations about “Latinx” as a term are not going away anytime soon, which means that the implications of these conversations are going to continue to form. The purpose of the article to try to explain why “Latinx” is a necessary term, which they defend with evidence throughout the article.

In the article, Scharron-del Rio and Aja use their introduction and conclusion in the most efficient way. The introduction successfully introduces the topic and establishes where it is the authors stand on whether or not “Latinx” is a necessary term. As far as creating “an interesting, effective introduction”, the authors use the fourth strategy of using an anecdote (ie their backgrounds) when explaining why chose the topic and their position. As far as the conclusion goes, the authors keep from just repeating their biggest claims (which is something I will admit I default to), but rather reaffirm their point in a way that is new and impactful, which is what conclusions are supposed to do.

The one thing I will say Scharron-del Rio and Aja do not out right accomplish, and I really do believe that it is just because of the structure of the article, is using topic sentences. While I am never lost or confused on what it is they are writing about, other than including headers on every point they argue, I would not know what it is they are arguing against in each section until I am already fairly deep into the meat of their arguments. However, as I said before, I think this is just because of the structure of the article and it works without explicit topic sentence.

I also have to contend that I cannot tell if Scharron-del Rio and Aja revisedtheir article, which is a good thing. I do not see any obvious gaps in their article, spelling/grammar error, etc., so I am going to assume that they did revise the article in order to craft the most effective argument.

All of the staples of writing seen in the reference documents are ideas that I have trained to try to accomplish with my own writing. Even in the essays I write for fun (because I am a nerd), I try to make sure that I have a thesis that explains what it is that I am arguing, evidence to support that argument, topic sentence, an effective introduction and conclusion, and I am not going to lie, using signal words is probably one of my favorite things (remember, I am the biggest of the nerds). Using these ideas help make writing just that much more effective, which is the goal. Without an effective argument and writing, we’re just putting words on a page with little purpose, no matter the intent.

Scharrón-del Río, María R., and Alan A. Aja. “The Case FOR ‘Latinx’: Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice.” Latino Rebels, 5 Dec. 2015, www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/05/the-case-for-latinx-why-intersectionality-is-not-a-choice/.

“Argument.” The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 22 Feb. 2021, writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/argument/.

“Using Thesis Statements.” Writing Advice, advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/thesis-statements/.

“Revising Drafts.” The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2 Mar. 2021, writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/.

“Introductions and Conclusions.” Writing Advice, advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/intros-and-conclusions/.

Nordquist, Richard. “Examples of Effective Topic Sentences.” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/topic-sentence-composition-1692551.

Signal Phrases, department.monm.edu/english/mew/signal_phrases.htm.

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I Am Socially Awkward, so I Don’t Know Why Anyone Thought I Could Make Inanimate Sources Talk

In “The Case FOR ‘Latinx’” article, one thing that I found really interesting is how the authors dissected Guerra and Orbea’s arguments for why Latinx is not a necessary term in a way that unravels the original arguments. For example, with the “Linguistic Imperialism” argument, Scharron-del Rio and Aja up-end Guerra and Orbea’s entire argument – how can the term Latinx be “a blatant form of linguistic imperialism” when the language they are arguing to protect is the prime example of linguistic imperialism for people of Latin American decent? With this thought process, it just makes sense that Latin Americans start reverting back to the practices of indigenous languages and de-gender the language. If only for the sake of fighting back the linguistic imperialism.

Throughout the article the authors are engaging in the “Picking a Fight” strategy laid out in the “8 Strategies for Critically Engaging Secondary Sources” hand out. Piece by piece Scharron-del Rio and Aja are knocking down Guerra and Orbea’s arguments. Additionally, they are using this strategy to prove why they are right. Personally, when I create an argument, I tend to use the “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” strategy, just because that is how I was taught (in a scholarly framework, people generally don’t care too much about the thoughts of a 19-year-old, no matter how informed they are), but I do like the “Picking a Fight” approach. In that approach, the person making the argument has to not only make sure they are right but has to be able to defend it adequately too. In many cases, that could be a challenge.

(Picking a Fight)

Where I am at as a writer and a scholar, in order to successfully pull off the “Picking a Fight” strategy I would have to create a conversation, which is something that past teachers of mine have tried to make me do and I have failed miserably at. Essentially, because people generally don’t care too much about the thoughts of a 19-year-old, no matter how informed they are, in order for me to pick a fight with a source I would need another source to pick the fight for me – I would have to make the sources “talk” to each other and disagree. However, finding resources that purposefully “pick a fight” with another is not that simple, so it would be up to me to find that one paragraph or sentence to make the basis for the fight. So in the case of using the term “Latinx”, I could use Guerra and Orbea’s piece to talk about how “Latinx” is not a real term and is oppressive, but then I could find another article talking about how “Latinx” as term helps boost the self-esteem of non-gender conforming Latin Americans, and then I could make the two documents talk and fight.

Making a conversation between sources is a really useful tool to have in essay writing, but it does require a lot of intention on my part. I really have to think about what words I want to use and what parts I want to use from my sources in order to accomplish that, which is probably why I am historically bad at it. But, I know that it is a skill I need to work on in order to become a better writer and scholar. I’m still not going to like it though.

Scharrón-del Río, María R., and Alan A. Aja. “The Case FOR 'Latinx': Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice.” Latino Rebels, 5 Dec. 2015, www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/05/the-case-for-latinx-why-intersectionality-is-not-a-choice/.

Gaipa, Mark. 8 Strategies for Critically Engaging Secondary Sources. neurodiversity.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2015/11/Gaipa_Redaction-2.pdf.

“Identifying a Conversation.” Writing Commons, 24 Jan. 2020, writingcommons.org/article/identifying-a-conversation/.

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For Consideration: American Culture is the Erasure of Others

When reading Spilling the Beans and “How to Tame the Wild Tongue” it was hard finding the connection between the two. There was the obvious connection, both were written by Latin Americans about situations and scenarios specific to Latin Americans, but as far as a deeper connection, finding that was hard. With that said, I think I figured it out – the connection is not about the language or the beans but about how those things make people uniquely Latin American and how those things are overlooked in “traditional” American society.

In “How to Tame the Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua goes into great detail about how her language, not just Spanish but Chicano Spanish, is such an integral part of who she is. She even said, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.” Her language is something more than just the words she speaks, but it’s almost like a part of her DNA. With that being said, throughout her life, from grade school to when she was getting her PhD (let’s think about that for a second – to the highest level of education), Gloria had essentially been told to let go of her social/cultural identity and conform to what was expected of her. Her culture and language is such an important part of her being Latin American, but within American society it’s overlooked as being “unnecessary”, which is an attempt to erase that part of her.

With Spilling the Beans, it’s a similar idea just with beans instead of language. The author talks about the various ways to make beans, just within his family – you can make them with beans, milk, cream, with or without sugar, etc. You can put them in burritos, enchiladas, just eat them plain. There are sooo many ways to make and eat beans. And within Latin American society, all of these ways are an identifying part of their culture. The author makes a comparison to how traditionally white families were always telling their kids to eat their spinach like Popeye with Latin American children being to told to eat their beans in the same fashion.

(An example of different ways to use beans with just burritos, using examples from Taco Bell.)

Both of these passages are trying to get at how there are certain things, like language and food, that are unique to Latin Americans. These type of characteristics are what makes Latinx culture so rich – it adds layers to what we as Americans are used to and also makes connections to traditional American society. With how important language is to Gloria Anzaldua, I can make the connection to how protective Americans are of our brand of English. In Spilling the Beans, the different ways of making beans and eating them can be connected to how there are 5,000 different ways of making stuffing for Thanksgiving. The difference is that no one is telling us to not speak American English, or not to make stuffing with celery (which they really should, it's a crime against humanity at this point), but Latinx folks are being told to not speak Spanish or have an accent unless they want to go back to Mexico, or aspects of their culture, such as the food, are being ignored in favor of more "American" things. So, in all, these passages are about aspects of Latinx culture that unique to them, but also about their erasure in the push for assimilation of American culture.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’ (1987).” Available Means, pp. 357–365., doi:10.2307/j.ctt5hjqnj.57.

“Beans in Latin Cuisine.” Bean Institute, beaninstitute.com/beans-in-latin-cuisine/.

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My Little Historical Soap Box

           When finishing GCYV there was one entry that really stood out to me, especially after watching the Gabriel Iglesias video, and that was Yehimi Cambron’s entry. Yehimi’s entry gives us as readers a fuller picture of what it really means to be a DREAMer, a picture that students could not quite give just because they were and are so young - there are somethings they just cannot know.

           When Yehimi mentioned the fear, she felt when DACA was rescinded, not just for herself but also her loved ones and students, for me it goes right back to the situation Gabriel Iglesias spoke about in his sketch. The political climate around immigration (the hunt for “illegals” and contraband) that caused DACA to be rescinded is what also caused Gabriel’s tour bus to be pulled over. Because ICE was given orders to get every undocumented out of America, the ones that were documented and even born in America were put at risk. Everyone from some sort of Hispanic or Latinx descent is put under suspicion. From a historical perspective, this reminds me of the fugitive slave act that was part of the build up to the Civil War. Essentially, before the act, if a slave had been able to run away to the North, they would be free, but after the act was passed law enforcement in the North was forced to turn over these runaways to their owners in the South. With this act also came the occupation of slave catchers, whose specific job it was to catch runaways before they could make it to Canada. Sometimes what these slavecatchers would do though, when they could not find the right slave, was take a freed man or woman and turn them into the owner. In a sense, that is what I feel happened with Gabriel Iglesias on the side of that road. Because he fit the description (Hispanic), he was automatically under suspicion. It did not matter that he was a well-known comedian who was born and raised in America. What mattered was that he was a man of Mexican descent in a bus full of other Mexicans, as he joked in his show.

           Reading Yehimi’s entry, along with the comedy routine, has also made me think about what it means to be an American. So, while Gabriel was pulled over on the side of the road, there was someone who screamed out there window “He’s American!”, but what does that even mean? Do you just need a pile of papers and a social security/green card and boom you are an American? There is the Form I-485 that people who want to apply for permanent residence have to fill out, but what if they do not know all of the information asked? Are the automatically disqualified from applying for residence and eventually citizenship? That does not seem right or fair to me.

           To me, being an American dwindles down to whether or not you care and value freedom, not just for yourself but for all. For me this means the freedom for someone to just be themselves without fear of retribution (as long as no one is getting hurt in this pursuit). In this ideal world, someone like Yehimi would not have to worry about her life as an American being taken away. In this ideal world she would not have had to create portraits for her and her students in order to protect themselves.

While I know that we do not live in that ideal world, I do hope that as a whole we strive to achieve that world.

Nikuze, Marie. Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School. Green Card Voices, 2019.

“‘Fluffy Stopped by Border Patrol.’” YouTube, uploaded by Gabriel Iglesias, 5 Dec. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7b4R445iA8&feature=youtu.be.

“Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.” USCIS, 11 Jan. 2021, www.uscis.gov/i-485.

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I Have a Thing About Realness (?)

When we visited the Marietta Museum of History (MMH) there was one exhibit that really stuck out to me, and that was the first exhibit shown to us, the one that featured photographs taken by Mr. Raymond Burford. This exhibit was my favorite for two specific reasons.

           In school, whether it be K-12 or even so far in my college education, very rarely is history shown through the little things, like someone’s wedding picture or a picture from their prom. This exhibit did that – it told history through a series of the little things that made up the big thing of the life of African Americans in Cobb County during the Civil Rights Era. Now, I will concede that classes cannot exactly dive too deep in such a niche and specific topic (which creates a gap that MMH can fill in), but as a history student this exhibit fills a gap in my learning. I can learn the big picture things all day long. I can learn that the social lives of African Americans during this time period were like the social lives of white Americans at the same time. I can learn that black people did not generally feel comfortable going to a white photographer to take family photos. These are all things that I could very well learn in a classroom setting, but to see the pictures taken by Mr. Burford, showing just the mundane things in so many peoples lives, makes those things real. Realness is something I feel I talk a lot about, and that’s because we can about history, or even current events, and think of whatever topic or event it is happening to other people and completely disconnect from it but seeing pictures and hearing names helps create that connection. For example, I could look at those pictures and just see a black girl in a prom dress that looks like it’s from the 50s or 60s. Or, with the knowledge I have now, I can still see a black girl in a prom dress that looks like it’s from the 50s or 60s, and I can know that that picture was taken by Mr. Raymond Burford in Cobb County, Georgia and that girls parents probably called him to arrange for that picture to be taken. Now she is not just some girl in a picture, but a girl with just a little bit of a backstory. That is not an experience that I can just pull out of a textbook, I needed to see it with my own eyes to really understand the history being told.

           The other reason that this exhibit was my favorite is because it was almost entirely made of pictures. What I mean by this, was that there was very (very) little text in this exhibit. One of the biggest things I do not like seeing in museums is big walls of text. I know that in many cases that is something that is unavoidable because there is just so much information museum curators want to push out to their audiences, but as someone walking through the museum it actually makes it harder for my to digest the information. By including just pictures (and the wedding dress featured in the exhibit) I was able to get a pretty well-rounded understanding of what the exhibit was trying to convey. That is the type of thing that I wish other museums did regularly.

           The visit to the museum also gave me a clearer image of what the research we are doing is going towards. Again, with the idea of realness, actually meeting Amy Reed and going through the museum, I can see a sort of trend of how she likes to set up her exhibits and what types of topics she cares about. Now she is not just some random person that I know is going to be looking at my work, but rather someone who I now know has a passion for what she does. It’s the little things that make all the difference and make this slightly less scary.

Christa. “The Man with the Camera: Photographs by Raymond T. Burford.” Marietta Museum of History, Marietta Museum of History, 18 Nov. 2020, www.mariettahistory.org/the-man-with-the-camera-photographs-by-raymond-t-burford.

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It’s About Being Counted (and Seen)

One thing that I find really interesting about Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School (GCYV) is how diverse the people interviewed are. We have students everywhere from Bangladesh to Turkey to Mexico, truly bringing in the idea that America (and Georgia in particular) is a melting pot. In reading the article on Marietta, I did get this melting pot idea like I did in GCYV. The article included figures about how in Cobb County 19% of the population is black and 8% is Hispanic – at no point does the article mention people who might fit into these groups, like people of Asian descent and whatnot. Out of the 688,078 people counted in the 2010 census (ignoring the reasonable assumption that the county’s population has only grown) for Cobb County, there has to be people who do not fit the “common” three races (white, black, and Hispanic and/or latinx). The people who do fit into these categories need to be counted. While the article was probably just trying to point out the most prominent races in the county and city, it left whole sections of people out.

That being said, I did see similarities between the story laid out in the Latino Immigration article and the stories told by Daniel and Luis. Daniel mentioned how when he was younger his father would literally have to stand out on the corner hoping that someone would pick him for a job. In Luis’s case, he mentioned that when he was nine his mom was having a hard time finding a job because of racist attitudes towards her. To me these instances directly related to the part of the article about how in the nineties some white people actively worked against day laborers, under what I am assuming was the idea that these people (that are working day by day, like Daniel’s dad) are stealing the white people’s jobs (you know, the jobs they generally don’t want). The connection to Daniel’s story is fairly obvious – his father did work as a day laborer to help support his family. It took him years to get a stable job in construction, but in the meantime, he needed to do something to provide for his family. In Luis’s instance, I think his mom’s situation with work was a direct result of the attitudes displayed in the nineties. The article mentions how employers loved Hispanic or latinx labor (most likely because they could pay them less than white or black people would work for), but when there is a public outcry against that type of labor, the employer is probably going to cave to what the customer wants, which unfortunately in this case is less latinx workers. Luis’s mom had to live in the fall out of this.

Reading these articles and GCYV, I have had to think deeper about the world, more specifically the society we live in. While I would like to believe that the world we live in is fair and that people want to do the right thing, I (and quite frankly, all of us) can’t afford to think like that. So with the article on Marietta failing to acknowledge the existence of non-white, black, and Hispanic/latinx peoples, a disservice was being done to them. Even within the article on Latino Immigration, a disservice was done to latinx peoples because the article does not truly say the intention behind some peoples’ actions (like the protesting against day laborers). I as the reader had to make assumptions, ones based on common rhetoric but still assumptions, on what those motivations were, and how they related to students featured in GCYV. If I did not have the awareness of common rhetoric used when referring to immigrants (legal or otherwise), I would not have been able to see Daniel and Luis’s individual stories in the article, which is a shame for anyone who needs that “AHA!” moment from the article.

(Luis)

(Daniel)

Nikuze, Marie. Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School. Green Card Voices, 2019.

Scott, Thomas A. "Marietta." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 29 September 2015. Web. 08 February 2021.

Scott, Thomas A. "Cobb County." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 14 September 2018. Web. 08 February 2021.

Olsson, Tore C. "Latino Immigration." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 11 August 2020. Web. 08 February 2021.

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We’re All Very (Very) Similar (Just Maybe a Little Different)

When reading the personal essays from Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School, I was constantly reminded of one of the definitions in the Critical Race Theory article I read, specifically the definition of intersectionality and anti-essentialism. Essentially, what the definition was getting at was just because someone is apart of some category, let’s say for this example the category is immigrant, it does not keep them from fitting into categories that can be related or unrelated to the original category.

While reading the personal essays, there were two that really stuck out to me, and I think the reason they stuck out boiled down to the idea of intersectionality and anti-essentialism. The first story that stuck out to me was that of Kumba Njie, a girl who was born in Atlanta but grew up in Gambia. The reason that she stuck out to me was for a somewhat silly reason, but it’s also a little bit personal, being that she works at Taco Bell. I also work at Taco Bell. I have for the past two-and-a-half years, albeit at a different store. While I have worked with immigrants before (many of my coworkers are either first- or second-generation immigrants), most of them have been Hispanic or latinx, not African. This is where the idea of intersectionality and anti-essentialism comes in, because, of course, being from Africa does not exclude someone from working at Taco Bell, but it’s also not something that at least I think of when I think Taco Bell. The two categories, while they may not exclude each other, do not normally go together. When reading through Kumba’s essay I also noticed that she said she was part of the National Honors Society for Social Studies, and while I was never part of that particular group I also have a deep care for Social Studies, hence why I am a History Education major. Seeing these little but, what I consider meaningful, connections between me and Kumba helped solidify an idea that I think the book is trying to get at, which is that the people highlighted in the book, and all that they represent, are not that different from everyone else. Yes, their life experiences differ, but at the end of the day, they are working the same jobs as us and pursuing the same interests as the rest of us.

The other essay that stood out was that of HM Sakib, again for a personal reason. When HM talked about his mom it reminded me of how I think and talk about my mom. Similar to HM’s mom, my mom would do anything to make sure that I am getting the very best life possible, even at the expense of herself. While the situations are different, my mom has also put up with a lot of stuff that she really should not have had to, for my sake. Reading about how HM sees his mom as his “role model for everything” and how he puts “her up on a pedestal” really is how I also see my mom. Without my mom I would have nothing, so to read about someone else also acknowledging that their mom is responsible for essentially everything in their life is slightly relieving. It reminds me that I am not the only one who has a parent who cares about their child that much, but also makes me grateful that I have a parent like that. People like HM and I are lucky like that, because not everyone has a mom that would give everything to ensure their child’s life.

Reading these personal essays, I really do feel a connection to many of these people. There are little things here and there that I can say I relate to (like working at Taco Bell), and I think it is the little things that the most important. The little things are what allows for conversations to start and for people to get to know each other. Yes, there are people who come from wildly different cultures and backgrounds, but if I look past the obvious differences, there are so many commonalities, like wanting to make the world a better place, a theme I saw when they all spoke about the American Dream. It’s the commonalities that we need to look at more often, I think, not just the things that make us different.

Nikuze, Marie. Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School. Green Card Voices, 2019.

Purdue Writing Lab. “Critical Race Theory // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/critical_race_theory.html.

[jacquelinesresearch]

A Day at the Museum

At the Museum of History and Holocaust Education connect to Kennesaw State University, there is a wide range of exhibits meant to help provide a well-rounded education on how the Holocaust and World War II not only affected Europe, but also America, going all the way down to even Cobb County. My favorite exhibit in the entire museum was probably the “Parallel Journeys” exhibit because it had different panels of different people and shared how World War II and/or the Holocaust impacted their lives. It was interesting to me because we hear numbers of *insert specific number here* of people being affected by the war and everything that happened with it, but very rarely do we actually see the stories of people other than Anne Frank and Ellie Wiesel.

When you first start going through the exhibits, you see what you expect – a lot of information and details involving World War II and the Holocaust, with panels highlighting certain people and events in the war. But as I walked through the museum, I saw started to see panels talking about how the war impacted the economy and society of Georgia, specifically Cobb county. To me, it seemed like the curators were trying to bring everything (quite literally) back home, and it worked.

There were portions of the museum dedicated to the Japanese internment camps, segregation the United States at the time (including in the army), as well as a section about the role women played in the war. Within these sections were pictures to go along with the stories being told, as if to prove that these stories are real, and the people being focused on lived and experience these things. There was specific story highlighted about this man, Jimmy Doi, who ended up being interred for being Japanese in America after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He eventually enlisted in the army and served for a government who, for all intents and purposes, saw him as the enemy. I just thought that that took an amazing amount of courage, and as seen in the photographs in the museum, he lived through the war and reached old age. In the end, it was a happy ending for him.

I think the most important factor in the museum, and the factor that I cannot speak on enough, is the incorporation of people’s stories in each exhibit. We learn about facts and figures in school, some people can even rattle off numbers about how many died, how many lived, how many enlisted, etc., but those facts and figures mean nothing without the human element. People were affected by everything that happened at this time, meaning that they have stories to tell. The museum did a great job incorporating these stories into the different exhibits, and letting the facts and figures rest on the backburner for a little bit.

[jacquelinesresearch]

Papers, Research, and Archives, oh my!

In Philip Gerard’s article “The Art of Creative Research” he wrote something that stuck out to me - “ If you don't know where to begin, begin somewhere.”  I think that this is how I research. I always research around the topic that I am doing, and that is what allows me to find the deeper questions that I truly want to answer. I think researching like this is what keeps me from being put in a “box”. I am not someone who likes being confined to an idea or a topic. As it is, most of the time I don’t even know where it is I want to begin specifically, I just have the broad idea. I remember for one of the research papers I have done in the past, me and my classmates had been given a selection of sources to choose from and we had to use at least two of them within the paper, and connect the sources to some larger theme within our topic. I immediately noticed the theme of interconnectedness which I tied to social media. Social media is a really broad topic, so I had to find some way to narrow it down, leading me to look at my own interests, going through different things that I can connect or relate to. I ended up researching how social media affects LGBTQ+ teens, looking at depression and anxiety rates, cyberbullying, etc., but the point is that that is not where I started. I had to begin somewhere (social media) in order to get to what I actually cared about, which should be the entire reason why research is conducted anyway - because you care about the topic.

In the “What Are Archives?” article by King’s College, the author makes another point that I think is important for research, that “Archives can even be used as evidence in hearings on human rights violations, such as the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa).” What stuck out to me were the implications of the statement. While the statement is speaking directly to archives being used as evidence of “human rights violations”, it also implies that archives can just be used as evidence of anything involving how people connect and relate to each other.  I wish that I had had access to an archive when doing previous research because it would have added a more human element to my papers and analysis. I believe that using archives as evidence would have made it clear to my audience that the topics I researched did not happen in a vacuum, but instead affected real people. Secondary sources do not get to that like primary sources do. Secondary sources can always be dismissed as someone else saying a thing (even if that thing is based on fact), which primary sources are the direct result of someone living through that thing.

Looking at the two quotes that I pulled out together, I see that I wish I could have used these two ideas together in the past. For the paper on social media and LGBTQ+, I wish that I had been able to use an archive (like Tumblr) that I had access to in order prove from the very beginning that the topic that I was researching did not exist in a vacuum - that the surveys and statistics that I found had real world implications affecting real world people that I could name. It was going through Tumblr and seeing all of the people on here talking about how they feel more comfortable being themselves online than they do in front of their friends and family that helped give me the idea for the topic anyway, but alas I was unable to use any primary sources for that particular paper. But if this bout at research goes as planned, I will be able to prove how whatever topic I dive into affects real people, not just prove what I know in statistics.

Gerard, Philip.  “The Art of Creative Research.”  AWP, October/November 2006, accessed January 15, 2014.

What Are Archives?  King’s College Cambridge, 2021, https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/introduction-to-archives/a/1.  Accessed January 19, 2021.