Writing Log 4A Ellis Battista

The first hot spot that caught my attention was the very first sentence after the introductory paragraph and it said “Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear” (108). The reason why this caught my attention is because it is a very bold statement to come out with in the first paragraph of the story. I do not like this part at all because it is basically saying that all men in the world put all women in the world in constant fear of being raped because that is all men do. I do not know about most men, but I never look at girls and try to make them fear me because I want to rape them. That is a sick statement and completely unnecessary to say something like that about a whole gender. I do not like that she added that quote to her story because it is such a ridiculous statement that everyone knows is not true. It is not even offensive to me being a male because it is such a ludicrous statement that I know most people will look right past it.

My other hot spot says “This fact explains why in my experiences as a rape crisis counselor, every Native survivor I ever counseled said to me at one point, ‘I wish I was no longer Indian’” (109). The reason why I chose this to be my hot spot is because it seems dubious. I am not saying that the author of that statement is lying, but I have a hard time believing that every single person the author of that statement counseled said that. I would think that people would be proud of their heritage and would not wish against their ethnicity. I do not know what is like to have to go to a rape counselor so I cannot really say how I would react or feel, but I do not think I would blame my ethnicity for why it happened.

My first hot spot that caught my attention says “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this nation” (71). The reason why I chose this as a hot spot was because I thought it was a perfect response to what the clergymen said to him. I feel like he made a stronger point than the clergymen did because of the way he responded.

My second hot spot in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is “you warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping order and preventing violence. I don’t believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unharmed, nonviolent Negroes…” (84). He goes on in this quote to talk about how the police abused all ages and genders of Negroes. I liked this a lot because it made a very strong point in a calm and peaceful way. I do not think he could have responded any better to that. I would imagine that the clergymen felt stupid after the response from Mr. King because the way he handles these types of situations.

One time in my life that I was discriminated because of my race is when I was visiting my brother at Ohio State and we went to play basketball at one of the courts. There were all African Americans playing and they said that white boys could not play with them but after we waited for a few games it was our turn to play. When I got into the game I wanted to show them that I could be a threat so I did what most white people do, hit three’s all game. It was really funny after we started playing because after I made a few shots they actually started to pass me the ball and respect me as a basketball player. It was a really fun time but I was extremely mad at first when I thought they were really not going to let us play since we were white.

2. Hotspots

-“We must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding brotherhood.”

(pg.73, par. 1, Socrates quoted by King)

I chose this hotspot because it was a comparison that was a good representation of what King stood for, nonviolence. Although he was quoting Socrates, I feel as if Martin Luther King always had a poetic way with words, which is what made him even more inspirational, and I do love that about him.

-“But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your Negro brothers smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society”

(pg.74, par. 2, King)

This hotspot was so powerful that it caught my attention immediately. I think that this was the peak of King’s because he continues to feed off of example after example, explaining each and every injustice he has encountered in his lifetime. This caught my attention because I never realized how severe the brutality was until I continued reading and noticed how long the list of examples was that he was giving.

-“Rape as nothing less than a tool of patriarchal control undergirds the philosophy of the white-dominated women’s anti-violence movement.”

(pg.108, par.1, Smith)

I found this hotspot interesting because I personally do not see rape as just less than a tool of patriarchal control; I see rape as so much more. I disagreed with the statement because although rape is commonly defined as a control or power issue, I think that it is also an emotional and personal issue that might not always have to do with power and control.

-“It is inadequate, she argues, to investigate the oppression of women of color by examining race and gender oppressions separately and then putting the two analyses together, because the overlap between racism and sexism transforms the dynamics.”

(pg.109, par.1, Crenshaw quoted by Smith)

I chose this hotspot because I never took the time to realize that there was such a strong correlation between race and gender oppressions. After reading this essay I see how oppression towards women differs from race to race, and I think that making this correlation was an important part of Smith’s research and studies.

Writing Log 4A

The first essay that I read was Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. This was very deep and passion filled letter with many good points and ideas, but I would say that the main point of the letter was to tell his readers why he had chosen to do his march at the time and that more people need to step up in Birmingham.

My first hotspot was “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered and outsider anywhere in this country.”(71) This hotspot was of course talking about equal rights and how everyone is equal and is never an outsider in their own country. I think that this is a very good statement but today just like those years ago, people still today are treated like outsiders for many reasons. First off it that today people are denied a lot of things just because of your religion or heritage. People will be rude and cruel to another person because they dress a certain way because it is something that their religion says to do. And because of that people judge them and treat them ways that make them feel like outsiders. Even thought they could have been born and raised in this country. Not only that people who immigrate over here are even treated differently depending on where they are originally from. For example if someone is Mexican and has an accent people automatically assume that they are over hear illegally but the reality of it is that not all Mexicans in America are over here illegally. And not only that they are not all in American to do cheap labor. It is a sad truth that even if you live in the country doesn’t mean that you won’t be treated like an outsider.

My second hotspot was “T.S. Eliot has said that there is not greater treason than to do the right deed wrong.”(85) This was talking about the peaceful marchers were being treated in a wrong and abusive manner for not reason and that no one was really taking the side of the marchers saying that they were the ones who did something wrong. And this was the response that King had to that statement. To me this is almost like saying that two wrongs don’t make a right. And even doing something that is morally right has to be done in a moral way. I think that this is a very true and good statement for now and even more at that time. There are so many examples that come to mind when you think about this statement. Like for example kill tons of innocent people just to get to the source of something corrupt the right thing to do. And at that time beating and even at times killing innocent people who were marching for something that was so right and doing it peacefully is not even something to consider as a right deed. But I would guess that he was referring to the people who wanted to fight and create violence towards that people doing the attacking. That is my thoughts on this hotspot.

The second essay I read was Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide by Andrea Smith. This was a very interesting essay to say the least but I would guess that her main point is that sexual hate crimes of women are overlooked and have been for many years.

My first hotspot was “They had to convince ‘both men and women that a woman’s proper place was under the authority of her husband…”(117). This hotspot was referring to how the colonists thought that they were teaching the Native people “to learn the value of hierarchy…”(116). I must say that I think that this is terrible and the way that she used it seemed very wrong. First off this doesn’t seem relevant to the whole hierarchy idea at all. How does the miss treatment of women during the time of colonization really have to do with the way that Native women were miss treated by men. The whole section that the hotspot was in just didn’t seem to make any sense at all. It seemed like she was putting all the blame of everything that ever happened to Native women in history is only men’s fault. Which yes there is probably more blame to put on them if you go way back in history but she never says anything about women dong anything wrong. Like at the time women should have maybe taken more of a stand but then again at the time they didn’t really realize that they could have more freedom than they did. Also she makes it seem that they Native had no such thing as a hierarchy but they did because they already had a leader of every tribe. I just feel that this thought was not really thought out completely.

My second hotspot is “Rape is nothing more of less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep as women in a state of fear.”(108) This quote is introducing the whole essay, and in my opinion is very inappropriate, and the facts are not even right. I must first is that women are not the only gender in this world that get raped; men get raped as well as women. Not only that it makes it seem like men are constantly following women around and just doing as they please. Which is not true women are not constantly worried that no matter where they go they are going to be raped by some guy. Its just not true, and not only that it makes it seem that women just sit in a dark corner crying in fear because that is all that ever happens to them. This statement is just wrong in so many different ways.

Log 4A

The first hot spot that I found in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” is located on page 74. It reads: “We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed, is justice denied.” We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights.”

The second hot spot I found is located on page 77. It reads: “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in

Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom writers did in Hungary was “illegal.””

While reading the essay “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” I found two hot spots that were very interesting to me. The first one is located on page 110. It reads: “As white Californians described them in the 1860’s, Native people were “the dirtiest lot of human beings on earth.” They wear “filthy rags, with their persons unwashed, hair uncombed and swarming with vermin.””

The second hot spot that I came across in “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” is located on page 111. It reads: “For instance, prostitutes are almost never believed when they say they have been raped because the dominant society considers the bodies of sex workers undeserving of integrity and violable at all times. Similarly, the history of mutilation of Indian bodies, both living and dead, makes it clear that Indian people are not entitled to bodily integrity.”

Writing Log 4A

Letter from Birmingham Jail: 

My first hotspot found in the story Letter from Birmingham Jail was “We further strongly urge our own Negro community to withdraw support from these demonstrations, and to unite locally in working peacefully for a better Birmingham” found on page 69. This disturbed me in many different ways. Basically they are wanting the Negro community to relax and put aside their differences and opinions to keep Birmingham a peaceful community. They are not wanting to listen to the negro community.

The second hotspot that I found in the story was “I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exists for the purpose of establishing justice, and that when they fail to do this they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” This statement caught my attention because it is so true. Justice should be equal among every member in the community no matter their ethnicity. 

Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide: 

My first hot spot is found on pages 109-110. Right when I started reading about what Smith was going to discuss in this story, it made me already disagree without her explaining what it was going to be about. “As I will discuss in this chapter, women of color do not just face qualitatively more issues when they suffer violence, but their experience is qualitatively different from that of white women” 

The second hot spot that I found was on page 118. The author is giving us statistics on how sexual violence as a tool of racism that continues against women of color. She tells us that the trafficking of women consist of mostly women of color. I never thought about the women who are involved with trafficking other then the thought of it being absurd it actually happens. Smith tells us that there is between 45,000 to 50,000 people form the U.S are trafficked each year. This absolutely has me stunned that there are this many people who are getting taken advantaged of.

Writing Log 4A Hotspots

Megan Vaccarella

“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forces to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored” (73). I really liked this section of the King’s letter. The way he words himself is really clever in my opinion. He is taking something that the clergymen said, and explaining in such a way that it even makes me agree to something I didn’t think much about. The way he words himself makes this statement sound intelligent rather than like he is just angry and not making sense. When reading this, I couldn’t even think of an argument to oppose to what he is saying.

My next hotspot was on page 77 and it states, “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungry was ‘illegal’.” This statement really makes me think about not only the situation when this letter was written, but also our current laws and legal system. It makes me wonder if certain things that are illegal can actually be more justified then things that are considered legal. It also makes me think about how our society can sometimes be ignorant to laws. We tend to go along with things sometimes because they are what we are told is “legal” but, does that mean their really fair?

My first hotspot was found on page 111 and it states, “Because Indian bodies are ‘dirty,’ they are considered sexually violable and ‘rapable,’ and the rape of bodies that are considered inherently impure or dirty simply does not count.” This statement made me really angry. Before Smith made this statement there was a quote by a man that said in general, they deserve this. It makes me really sad to think that a woman would not only have to go through the trauma of being raped, but would then not get the justice she deserves. Instead of getting treated how she should, she is actually looked down upon and made to believe that she should have seen it coming. This is very sad to me and it opened my eyes to something that I was unaware of.

“Similarly, in a recent case among the Aboriginal people of Australia, a judge ruled that a 50-year-old Aboriginal man’s rape of a 15-year-old girl was not a serious crime, but an example of traditional culture” (114). This disgusted me. Not only is the rape of a young girl by a man that old gross, it’s unimaginable. Later in this paragraph the judge says that the girl “knew what was expected of her” and “didn’t need protection.” This was a girl of just 15, there is no way she was mature enough to know what was expected of her, and in most places, 15 is not even a legal adult. This means there are many decisions she can’t make on her own. This quote really affected me and made me think about all the wrongs going on in the world that I am unaware of.

MLK and Smith hotspots. log 4a

“Sexual violence as a Tool of Genocide”, written by Andrea smith, addresses the issue of rape and its effects on both men and women. But she focuses on the effect that rape leaves on women of color. And the disadvantage they face compared to victims who are white. She says rape is a form a colonizing; where Natives are seen as objects of sexual desire instead of people with equal value. Ultimately Smith addresses the problem for Native Americans and how their perception is inevitable in our white eyes, “dirty and sinful”. (P. 112)

My first “hotspot” for Smith’s essay was when she talks about what being a Native American is to her, “..to me means cigarette burns in arms of children, double checking the locks on my cars, keeping a loaded shotgun by my door, and car bodies and beer cans on the front lawn.” Wow! I really hope that that is not the said truth for the majority of Native Americans. When I think of today’s Native American I don’t stereotype them into being head dress wearers and peace pipe smokers. But if I did, I wouldn’t say I was wrong because that was their culture. It’s where they came from, it’s their heritage. But if that heritage changed to that messed up nightmare Smith described above than that is a true tragedy.

“Hotspot” dos came not on a page but through the entire essay. I’m happy to be a white man in at least the 21^st century where there is more equality than prejudice. “White men” after reading this essay don’t come off to well. They’re the reason for women’s suffering everywhere. The white man taught the colored men how to denigrate their women. Unfortunately for those ignorant white men that was the practice they grew up in. Not to oversimplify and sound like a Neanderthal but those were the times. If you have to blame anyone for the injustices suffered by women across the world you can blame white men rightfully so. But ignorance is bliss and I would think had those men lived where I did and I where they did I would be the ignorant white man and they the onlookers who know better. They’re a product of their time sadly.

MLK Jr.’s written letter to those eight clergymen was such an awesome read. What a smart guy! His reasoning for writing the letter was to inform those men that his sit-ins and ant violent protests had just cause. He breaks done bit by bit what they said and completely destroys their convictions. If those men could have been alive today to reread what they said and then reread what MLK said they would have seeked penance a thousand times over. I mean, it’s crazy how recent all that was comparatively speaking. MLK’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” was so well written that it was fun to read. I mean the man was a scholastic poet. It was beautiful.

“Hotspot” one came when MLK said, “history is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” I thought that was so well spoken and true. That being said, it doesn’t make stripping an entire population of their natural born rights acceptable. I just thought that MLK hit the nail on the head with this statement. Why would a white man with all his rights and opportunities give them up so easily to another man? Thanks to MLK shining his light on that filthy situation, each group, deservedly so now, has their rights.

The second “hotspot” from MLK’s letter was when he talked about, “the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than justice;” compared to a KKK member. MLK says how that situation can be bewildering to him. How he hears white moderates say they support him but yet do absolutely nothing. You have to pick a side and stand by it. Not pick a side and hide away. I can definitely see where MLK was coming from when he said this. It would be extremely frustrating. At least if you’re my enemy your honest in your convictions, though they may be wrong, at least you’re a man fighting for something. But a man who just coasts through his privileged life and never tries to break the mold is pathetic and weak.

hotspotsss

The first hotspot I saw in this letter was paragraph two on page seventy-four. King talks about how it is easy for those who have not felt the oppression faced by blacks to think it is easy to wait for change to come to them. The examples King uses are extremely strong, from the twenty million Negros in poverty, to having to explain to his daughter why she can’t go to the “white” amusement park. When a writer can put his audience directly in the shoes of that author, you can tell how much they want you to understand what they are trying to say. All these situations expressed by King show legitimately how impatience is all that can be offered by Black people. The injustices are too strong to be fought “weakly,” or civil rights may never get where they need to be.

The Second hotspot I saw was when King talked about the White moderate impeding progress more than the racist oppressor. The reason for this King says, is because “the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” It is the white moderate who undermines the black movement whether he does so directly or indirectly is irrelevant. Another great quote from this section would be when he says “lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.”

The article titled “Sexual Violence as a tool for Genocide” is Andrea Smith’s approach to women of color who have to face oppression for both their race AND gender.

Andrea starts off by discussing how rape is “nothing more or less” than a tool for patriarchal control. She criticizes feminist Kimberle Crenshaw’s critical race theories for what she calls a “lack of attention to racism and other forms of oppression. Crenshaw looks at how male-dominated conceptions of race and white-dominated conceptions of gender stand in the way of a clear understanding of violence against women of color. Smith argues that examining race and gender oppression separately is inadequate. Instead, she argues, an “intersectional” approach must be supplanted for such analyses. I find this intersectional method as the first hotspot in the essay

The next hotspot to me would be the historical overview of rape being used as a tool for racial aggression. “African American women were also viewed as inherently rapable. Yet where colonizers used sexual violence to eliminate Native populations, slave owners used rape to reproduce an exploitable labor force. (The children of black slave women inherited their slave status.) And because black women were seen as the property of their slave owners, their rape at the hands of these men did not “count.” This demonstrates that for centuries rape has been the ultimate tool of dehumanization, exploitation, and humiliation. Nothing may be more effective and disgusting then rape as a weapon for the ruling class and the fact that it has gone on for so long is despicable.