1935 Harlem Riot

Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting week of...... (cues theme music) JASON's BLOG! With your host JASON LOBER!!!

Thank you, Thank you, your far too kind.

This weeks topic is the Harlem Riots of 1935 and what had caused it. Throughout this semester we have been talking about the morals of those who riot, steal and destroy in order to make a point or fight for what they believe in. Around this time, segregation was growing and racism was spreading deeper within the white population of the New York Area. This lead to less jobs, less money, less opportunity, pretty much everything of value to their families and their well being was stripped from them. This created a huge hateful stir within the Black community. The majority of the African American community felt a riot was extremely necessary in order to seek the equality and respect they deserved as human beings. Some of the other African Americans thought violence would only lead to worse conditions for them so they did not participate, some even wrote to the Mayor at the time in order to try to clear their name.

I hope you enjoyed my Blog, Stay tuned for more!

Free Write

Hey Everyone! our blog assignment this week is to free write about anything that has intrigued us throughout the semester. 

Its hard to pick one thing to write about because of all the topics w have touched on in class. The class has truly changed my perception of the problems and issues I, as a New Yorker, see on an everyday basis. The riots, governmental issues, and class distinctions we have discussed in class has been an eye opening experience. I enjoy every discussion we have in class because the professor brings up some very interesting points that I, myself, could have never concluded to. Its great to hear and see different aspects of issues dealt with on a normal basis within the past and present of the culture and society I call home. 

The most interesting thing we have touched on in the course to me is the governmental conspiracies that we have been noticing in the novels we have read for class. I find this the most interesting topic of class because we hear about government conspiracies more often then not in the present. This only goes to show that history does in fact tend to repeat itself. This also means, unfortunately, that we can be expecting a riot or a "World War 3" to come about any day now. 

      

MUST READ POSTS!

Gerald Dunn on the personification of the city as a female and the general discombobulation that is dealt with in "The Destruction of Gotham":

http://enn195gad.blogspot.com/2014/10/great-city-lies-trembling-panting.html?showComment=1415376585237#c7540719327839029088

Kenia Cuenca on the portrayal of women in societal norms, the true beauty vs. the evil stereotypes:

http://keniacuenca.blogspot.com/2014/10/caesars-column-october-15-2014.html?showComment=1415378508537#c4441841926470246444

Destruction of Gotham: The Good, The Bad, and The Unhealthy

Hello fellow blog people, Jason Lober here back at it with another one of my blogs on the "Violence in America: Art and Culture". I'm starting to see why it is a lot of people start there own blogs and really become attached to them. This gives any person a great opportunity to get their voice out on the Worldwide Web and talk about the issues they really hold to heart. I enjoy reading and writing these blogs for my class, it has become really handy in my studies as well as a chance to capitalize on the materials that we have been learning about in class.

Today's topic will be on "What were the main issues one had to face during these rough times as a city folk?". In our previous blogs and class lectures, my classmates and I focused on, what seemed to be, never ending famine, greedy and masculinity obsessed railroad owners, murderous actions amongst the civilians of New York City, as well as the wage strikes. We see that, back in that time period, there was a huge competition between the Irish men who refused to work until they received a pay raise and the African Americans who would take their jobs for the same pay the Irish received or even less. Reading closer to the text we have been assigned I've noticed that these are the majority of the main issues in New York at this time, but i also noticed that with every main idea there are extremely important little details that are not necessarily advertised a lot in the book, but are still just as important to the main issues.

We were all assigned one paragraph from the text that we had to critically analyze and compare to the main issues of this text. The passage I was given was about a loveless couple who birthed a young girl with no intentions on loving, caring or even nursing the poor child. In the text, the couple is referred to as a "Unhappy love match" and proceeded to raise the young girl with an ignorant view on city-life, the world and her own existence. The girl eventually grew up, ignorant minded and vulnerable, and set out into the world with no money, no knowledge, and no love for herself or anyone else. In the text she is referred to as a prostitute, selling her body to the savage, love-less men who would pay to sleep with her. She was a lost soul born into a world destined to not have any chance of thriving.

One term used in the text that really jumped out at me was "Tenderly reared". I believe this is referring to the girl being abused by her parents, who didn't even want her in the first place. only when the parents died was she relieved from that abuse, but she is left a hopeless and scarred civilian without any skill or confidence to overcome the odds and make something of herself. I think this really exercises the the lack how New York hit a state of depression even before the Great Depression of the 1920's. The birth and uprising of of a generation that couldn't fend for themselves only made the economy worse and ultimately lead to some of the largest numbers of death, unemployment, and poverty that the New York has ever seen.

Thank you for reading, be sure to catch my next blogs coming up on a weekly basis!

 

Communism: Stalin's Believe in it or Not

Hello All,

My name is Jason Lober, I am a student in LaGuardia Community College and this blog is dedicated specifically to my "Violence in America: Art and Culture" class. In this week's class we read about The Great Railroad Riots of 1877, which caused massive amounts of crime, poverty, and even murder. like my professor said in class, "This was the Greatest Depression in America, even before the Great Depression of the 1920's" (Prof. Rodgers-Cooper). The author also wrote about Communism within the context of the Riots.

The author of The Great Railroad Riots of 1877, wrote about Communism in a manner that showed his dislike and disagreement with the subject. He first talks about how communism preaches equality for all men without class distinctions; same wages no matter your employment and  same healthcare for all, no man should have any more or less then their fellow comrades. The author disagrees with this saying that class distinctions are what keep a society moving forward and labels it as the right way living. he then goes on to bring up and then challenge everything in which Communism stands for.

In my opinion, from all that he has stated about Communism and its morals, I agree for the most part with what communism stands for. Although when it first came into existence it was brutally forced upon citizens whose governments wanted to bring Communism about, making it extremely undesirable and threatening if anything. This brought up a couple of questions from me, why is it that those who are not associated with Communism, bash and ridicule its ideas? Why not take into account some of the ideas in which Communism brings without forcing it upon society? Why must the people who are granted freedom and democracy be so hard-headed and set in their ways without even considering another's idea, even if it might prove to help , if not better their own society?

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more on "Violence in America: Art and Culture".