Coatesville

Blog Post 3

John Jay Chapman

American author John Jay Chapman gave a speech about the Coatesville Lynching of 1911 in “Coatesville.”  In this event, a Black man was lynched in public for a crime while many people merely spectated and basically no one attempted to stop the event. A year after the event, Chapman visited Coatesville to give a speech about this event.

Chapman notes that he is not giving this speech “for the purpose of condemning it, but to repent of our share in it” (Chapman 71).  He does not blame any small group of people but rather marks America and humanity having responsibilities in this event.  He makes the strong allusion to the last parable, “Someone may say that you and I cannot repent because we did not do the act. But we are involved in it. We are still looking on. Do you not see that this whole event is merely the last parable, the most vivid, the most terrible illustration that ever was given … of the relation between good and evil in this world, and of the relation of men to one another?” (Chapman 73) By mentioning the last parable, Chapman brings up cruel imagery to the listeners and emphasizes how strong of a crime people are committing even though it may not seem so.  Although there are direct contributors to this cause, they are not the only perpetrators.  Chapman also focuses less on these people but rather directs his words toward people who believe they are not relevant to this event.

To these people, Chapman states, “I say that our need is new life, and that books and resolutions will not save us, but only such disposition in our hearts and souls as will enable the new life, love, force, hope, virtue, which surround us always, to enter into us” (Chapman 73).  During the lynching, Chapman said there were many educated and proper citizens present but they did not have substance in the heart. Chapman successfully and effective tells people to go back to the heart where education and books cannot touch us – but the truth can.

The Guilty Spectators
During the lynching, there was a crowd of people watching the tragedy.  Although most were mere passerbys and not direct contributors, Chapman says everyone holds responsibility for this event.

http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/lynching/

Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood

Blog post 2

Richard Rodriguez

“Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” was written by Richard Rodriguez, a famous American writer whose native language was Spanish.  With his essay, he wrote to American teachers and children who, like him, speak languages other than English at home about the importance of learning English at school.  As a child, he strayed away from English because he wanted to preserve the intimacy felt when he spoke Spanish with his family.  However, he later realized that learning English was imperative because it allowed him to interact with certain people, and forgetting Spanish didn’t kill the intimacy he felt with his family.

He conveys such messages by repeating the word “intimate.”  When Rodriguez has the revelation that words don’t create intimacy but intimacy is delivered through words, he says, “After such moments of intimacy outside the house, I began to trust what I heard intimately conveyed through my family’s English…I’d hear myself addressed intimate – in English…Intimate moments were usually moments of soft sound. My mother would be ironing in the dining room while I did my homework nearby. She would look over at me, smile, and her voice sounded to tell me that I was her son. Richard. Intimacy thus continued at home; intimacy was not stilled by English. Though there were fewer occasions for it – a change in my life that I would never forget – there were also times when I sensed the deep truth about language and intimacy: Intimacy is not created by a particular language; it is created by intimates” (Rodriguez 461).  By constantly reemphasizing the word intimate, he shows that intimacy can be communicated with whichever language and whichever medium, and that it’s almost omnipresent if one constantly thinks about it.

By writing his own experience as a bilingual child growing from his family’s nest to the public, Richard Rodriguez was successful in delivering his message.

Unconditional Love
Rodriguez realized that when in a loving family or any sort of relationship, intimacy is not determined by words but rather the personal connection and the actions. His family's strongest connection was their common language, but when that was replaced with a language barrier, Rodriguez felt a weight of guilt. However, they overcame that barrier at the end of the day because his family didn't love each other because they spoke Spanish; they loved each other because they were family.

multilingualliving.com

How it Feels to be Colored Me

Blog Post 1
Zora Neale Hurston

Written by famous writer and civil rights activist Zora Neale Hurston, "How it Feels to be Colored Me" tells the reader about how Hurston views herself in a country where she is discriminated for her skin. While many discriminated Black people felt hurt and destroyed by their situation, Hurston let everyone know through her essay that she didn't let that bother her but rather focused on enriching herself as a person.
While many believed being Black in this time of history was undesirable, Hurston fully appreciated her setting, which she shows through her diction in the quote, "The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said 'On the line!' The Reconstruction said 'Get set!'; and the generation before said 'Go!' I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep" (Hurston 115). Expressions such as "On the line," "Get set," and "Go" have feelings of positive anticipation that encourages an athlete for a successful round, just as Hurston believes she has been encouraged by moments in history to pursue success and will not stop doing so. She also states that although being Black came with certain perks, she did not let only her skin define who she was. She writes, "At certain times I have no race, I am me. When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue...The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time, I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads" (Hurston 117). Using this metaphor, she emphasizes her presence in the world, how society's expectation of her race does not decides how she feels, and how great she feels to be herself.
Hurston effectively and quite powerfully tells the people who expect her to be broken in some way that she's not and never will be.

Colored in Her Own Way
Zora Neale Hurston lives with her own goals among a society where she isn't expected to. She enjoys her life the way she wants to in the skin she's in and the way irrelevant to the skin she's in.

http://www.autopoint.com/?attachment_id=10715