"Their eyes where watching God"

Zora Neale Hurston poured her story out into the book "Their eyes were watching God". As I came to the end of the book, I realized how dynamic her writing was. She wrote with such personification and idiom. the relationships that she created in the story was broken down in stages in her life and how she compared them to natures cycles. In each relationship she encountered someone was telling her what to do, starting with her grandmother forcing her to marry a man she didn't want to marry, Logan Killicks, her first husband who had spoiled her for so long and complained when she didn't want to help him. She struggled with learning to love Logan although he provided a lot for her. In her description she felt unhappy, she wanted to experience real love. Once she got fed up, she ran off with her 2nd husband Joe Starks. He was very dominate over her. He made her feel low and kept her quiet. She felt trapped. He made her his possession, life as his wife wasn't as fun as she thought it would be. But she stuck by his side until he died, but on his death bed she explained to him what he did to her, and how she didn't think their love would have turned out to be so materialistic,reserved and controlled. She then met a young man few months after Joe's death. Tea Cake. Tea Cake provided her with a life she never knew. They loved each other to their very souls. She experienced more things with Tea Cake then her other husbands but she enjoyed every second. In a turmoil part of the book she says to tea cake "Ah jus' know dat God snatched me out de fire through you. and ah loves yuh and feel glad".(pg 180) the love she had for tea cake was beyond any love she experience in prior things...and when he died she learned to appreciate what life had to offer and that all the things she had been through was not in vain. And that things had occurred for reasons that only God could explain. She realized that all you can do is watch God, and see what he has planned for you.

Missing Pieces

When you pick up a high school text book on the History of America in most cases it will elaborate on the different presidents, government, society, and those who left a great impact on it. In a lot of American text many great people are not recognized for the outstanding achievements and great ideas and inventions made that moved America into a more industrial and more technological state. They acknowledge men like Henry Ford for his model T assembly line, Samuel F.B. Morse for the electric telegraph, Eli Whitney for the Cotton Gin, and Orville and Wilbur Wright who invented the first air plane. But what about those African Americans, who have made as great of contributions, do you hear about them in American History text books? What about Garrett Morgan who created the gas mask and the traffic light, Burridge and Marshman who created the typewriter, Alexander Miles who created the elevator, and Richard Spikes who created the automatic gear shift? These men have made a great contribution to America are not acknowledged in such context for their inventions. In order to even know about this information you would have to find books that contain information about black firsts. Why is that? Are we not all Americans? Have we not all shed blood, sweat and tears for this country for it to be the way it is now. African Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans all deserve recognition in America’s history. They try to exclude other races accomplishments in subtle ways and think that people can’t tell that they still have that puritan view on society and how it should be. They are able to say what’s important and what’s not. Is that really fair? In so many ways Ralph Ellison was right when he said” White Americans have fantasized Blacks no longer being a party of society and take credit for things that without blacks would have never been created”(Revelations). The question is would they have been able to write all the novels they wrote about the civil war, would they be able to listen to jazz, comb and brush their hair, use elevators, come up with the idea of a cell phone, create a movement of art, music, and literature like the African Americans, I think not. When the Europeans came over to the Americas for the first time they didn’t know what to do, they needed the Native Americans who were intact with nature, to show them how to hunt, and plant crops, and natural herb recipes to stay healthy. They took what use to be the Native Americans culture and their survival tactics and plagued and slaughtered them all and claimed the land theirs. Where is the patriotism in that? They have tried to erase the real history of Native Americans by their stories of thanksgiving and exaggeration of finding the new world, when true history shows the famine and disease they brought to the Native Americans. They needed them and much as they need us. Without the diversity of America, it would not be as advanced and as strong without its history books missing pieces. People like Lewis Latimer, Madame C.J. Walker, Charles Drew, and Fredrick M. Jones fill in those gaps of inventions/ideas they care not to discuss because they didn’t invent them. These missing pieces in history are important and who has the right to say my ancestors ideas or inventions aren’t American enough to be put in a history book?

Is America a "Post Racial Society"

When someone poses the question; "Is America a post racial society?” The first thought that crosses my mind is what is a post racial society? What does it consist of? When the phrase is dissected my interpretation is a society that no longer focuses on race and people embracing one another no matter what race, religion or creed they are. Has America really become a post racial society? Many people say now that we have a black president it is, but I question that statement, just because we have a black president doesn’t mean that Americans are not prejudice or racist. People think just because Barack Obama is president that all is well, when in l reality People have realized in order for this country to be successful they needed to make a better choice in choosing a president. Barack was raised by parents of the Majority race, he is black, but he is black as much as he is white. He drawls a line of equivalence that makes him a suitable candidate because it gave the majority group some assurance/validation. Meaning instead of it actually being post racial society people demanded change and where willing to put race on the shelf for the moment because they knew that bush administration was not focused on the problems of the people. The idea of race doesn’t just need to be a second focal point; it needs to be completely demolished. America needs to focus on real issues, like health, poverty, justice etc. Ironic thing is that these things affect minorities more so then majority, the fact that I call a race a minority and majority just shows that this society will never be post racial. Because we divide people into different groups as if they are not the same, as if they are not human beings. J. Dalaker, and Proctor, B. D gave statistics on healthline.com stating that Minority racial and ethnic groups are much more likely to live in poverty—23.6 percent of blacks and 22.8 percent of Hispanics lived below the poverty level, versus 7.7 percent of whites. Female-headed households (with no husband present) are much more likely than married couple families to live in poverty (27.8% versus 4.8%); with black and Hispanic female-headed households having the highest poverty rates (39.3% and 38.8%, respectively). Those with lower income have health issues, because of lack of access to healthcare. America has made it seem as if it’s an issue of social status and income, but people are fighting to get better jobs and seek opportunities that some races have automatic access to. This is another way I believe that certain races are excluded. The journal of blacks in education 2006 stated that not only are African-American scores on the SAT far below the scores of whites and Asian Americans, but they also trail the scores of every other major ethnic group in the United States including students of Puerto Rican and Mexican backgrounds. Studies show that the gap between black and whites sat scoring also is due to the income of the house hold. I believe that people with more money are able to send their kids to private schools that offer and have better teachers and programs to offer then public schools. These children have the opportunities to go to Ivy League schools and get good paying jobs while children less fortunate are unable to for whatever reason. I feel that this is a tactic that people use to keep others out. One of my fellow classmates made a great point on saying Racism was taught to him as Powerful people with Prejudices. Those who can actually do something to oppress the people they hate. But being prejudice is excluding a group or not favoring a group for the same reason, just because you don’t have power doesn’t mean your actions don’t have much as an affect or affliction on someone And isn’t that how it starts, you discourage a group for whatever reason excluding them in things that involve you and your race that could possibly be uplifting or beneficial to any group. It’s impossible to say that America is post racial, this country was built on 400 years of hatred between races, Is it possible that this new generation could get rid of customs past down in families for years? I think not. It’s going to take a little more than a black president and a second shelving of race for America to be post racial society. People need to look at each other as humans, respecting and wanting better for them. In order to be unified everyone must look past differences and see what issues they are faced with and work together to fix them.