Month: December 2019

Does time really heal all wounds? How big does the wound have to be for it to never heal? Throughout the semester, we have been given the opportunity to read examples of people trying to heal from their wounds, whether those be deeply intimate or social wounds that wound up impacting them. As brave as it was for them to try to heal, we have seen time and time again that there are just certain levels of damage that cannot be undone. I would argue that there is not always an answer once someone has been harmed. Not only is this represented in the literature throughout the semester, but it can also be seen in the U.S. when race is discussed.

Each book we have read has been focused on a serious incident which has taken place, whether that be the first set of bombs being set off in Zulus, the organism coming to earth in Clay’s Ark, or the medical experimentation done on Cee in Home. The characters in each case respond differently, but there is always a sense that they will try to keep moving forward. I would call this optimism but there isn’t really anything optimistic about it. In Clay’s Ark Eli, Blake, Keira, and Rane all try to continue living their lives, but in many ways, it is just a sense of determinism coming from the organism that will not allow them to die. In Home Cee comes to accept that she will never have children, but she doesn’t do so lightly. Even in Zulus after Alice Achitophel has had a child, gone through a physical transformation, and found love with Kevin Peters, she ends up killing the rest of humanity. I wanted to say that the end of Zulus was inevitable, but for many of us it wasn’t. After we had finished reading and come to terms with what had happened there were many students, myself included, who were shocked by the fact that she would have given up on the world around her. Even towards the very end she is still trying to make her life and the life of her daughter better, but when she tries to convince Kevin Peters to help her find their child, he says to her “Alice, our daughter was dead before she was born (pg. 242).” There were many times that she could have given up before we even began reading her story, which is why it came as such a shock when she ended up making the decision with Kevin to release the Agent. The constant weight of the world around her seemingly proved to be too much, as it does for all of us at a certain point. Although her conditions were arguably worse than those most people have faced, I think everyone has come to a point in their life where it seems like there are no good options left. This idea of an event that leaves us with no “right” choice is paralleled by the history of the medical field in the U.S.

As we continued to read Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid it became easier to understand how we currently live in such a blatantly racist society. Even the fact that we still acknowledge “race” when it is a purely social construct shows that we are relying on it too much. The discussion of eugenics brought up the idea that race is based in biology, and that certain races were inherently better than others because of the genes that had been passed down. When we watched Race: The Power of an Illusion/ The Difference Between Us, we saw students with a background in biology become stuck on the idea of race, even though they knew it was a social construct. The racist structures in the U.S. specifically have become hegemonic understandings at this point. There is no discussion over what race is and isn’t, there is simply an understanding that is forced on us with no area for critique. Similarly to the fiction we read, the same general themes came up when discussing the non-fiction. If we have a society so heavily based on racist structures and ideals, how are we expected to move on as a whole? How can the medical system actually advance when there is no effort put forth to recognize the racist structures it was founded on? How are black people ever expected to fully trust the medical system if the torment of their “race” is never fully recognized? When we watched Alice Achitophel try her hardest to move on with her life in spite of everything she had already gone through, we wanted the best for her, but we were left stunned when the best did not come. In many ways, at least she was able to completely tear down the systems that had let life get that bad in the first place. As a society, maybe we need to do the same. Trying to dismantle the medical system completely seems like an impossible task, but how can we honestly move forward without doing so?

In an article by Pitchfork titled, “Rico Nasty and the Importance of Black Women’s Anger in Rap” Natelegé Whaley discusses the importance of female rappers to providing representation for black women. Current rappers, such as Rico Nasty and Princess Nokia, have been instrumental in creating a space for (specifically) black women to express themselves while destroying the “angry black woman” stereotype. According to Dr. David Pilgrim of Ferris State University, black women have been portrayed as “rude, loud, malicious, stubborn and overbearing.” This is known as the Sapphire Caricature, a disparaging label of black women that’s been around in American popular culture since the 1800s. He argues that such representation is a society’s way of keeping black women silenced when they assert themselves. I can’t help but think of all the occasions people that black, female artists have been criticized simply for speaking their minds through their music.

Throughout the Pitchfork article, Whaley acknowledges the anger that Rico Nasty expresses through her lyrics. In the song “Sell Out,” Rico Nasty writes “ The expression of anger is a form of rejuvenation…I’m screaming inside of my head in hopes that I’m easing the pain.” In an interview, Rico Nasty told Whaley, “I don’t want to be that stereotypical black girl that’s mad all the time, but if that’s what you need to get your point across… you have a side of the story that needs to be heard, too.” In my opinion, she appears to be recognizing the harmful stereotypes that black females face but purposely chooses to express her anger at society in order to push it forward.

In class, we read novels by African American authors that also expressed their frustrations within their works. In Toni Morrison’s Home, there are moment in the novel that seem to resonate with the experiences of black female rappers today. The character Cee navigates her way through a world that tries to keep her down with every turn she makes. The following quote expresses Cee’s determination to keep pushing forward:

 So it was just herself. In this world with these people she wanted to be the person who would never again need rescue. Not from Lenore through the lies of the Rat, not from Dr. Beau through the courage of Sarah and her brother. […] She wanted to be the one who rescued her own self. […] Wishing would not make it so, nor would blame, but thinking might. If she did not respect herself, why should anybody else? -Toni Morrison

            Cee faces many hardships throughout the novel, but she constantly challenges the limits given to black women by society. This type of determination seems entirely necessary for artists, especially black female rappers to ensure their success. There are many quotes from my favorite artists that I could include, especially as they relate to the course texts. However, I can’t know exactly what Rico Nasty or Toni Morrison are saying in their crafts. Rather, I will continue to make bridges between artists through their parallel expressions of identity.

**Page number from Toni Morrison’s Home omitted due to various editions of the novel

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, sympathy is the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another.  Where as empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present.  There is a fine line between the two but it is quite distinguishable in many situations.  When a family member or loved one dies and your friend offers their condolences, they may have an idea as to how you feel or what you need to get through it but deep down, they have no idea how you truly feel even if they’ve gone through a similar situation.

Throughout the novel Home, by Toni Morrison, Frank and Cee go through many situations together, and separate, that no one outside of their own little world can full-heartedly relate to.  A majority of the people within the novel try to understand what they have gone through; Frank living life as a retired soldier being home and Cee as, basically, a hostage. But not one person can offer their truest, deepest sympathy, as they had not had the exact same life experiences Frank and Cee did.  At one point in the novel, Frank snaps at the author’s existence of a character and says, “You can’t imagine it because you weren’t there… you can’t describe the bleak landscape because you never saw it,” referring to the Korean War. He makes it clear that no one around him can feel the same way he does after experiencing such trauma and massive turning point in his life.  Frank returned home after the war and began a journey to Georgia to rescue his younger sister, Cee. He is greeted with the same racist actions and slurs when he returns that he had left behind months back when he went to war. 

On the other hand, Cee has experienced a great deal of sympathy later on in the novel since she went through something completely different than what an average day would consist of.  When Cee was fourteen years old, she ran off with her boyfriend of the time named Prince. He ended up running off and leaving her stranded to navigate through life with no guidance. She eventually finds a job as a medical assistant to a doctor named Beauregard Scott and is shown her in-house bedroom and office by the housekeeper, Sarah.  There is a sense of suspense at this point in the novel as readers begin to gain empathy for Cee and try to feel what she is going through during this rough patch in her life. Cee is blind to what is to come while working for this doctor and his wife; her being so young and naive after being babied by Frank all her life is a main cause for this situation occurring.  As a reader, we assumed Cee was going to go through something bad especially after having an insight to the types of books that were in her bedroom, most about eugenics and medical tests. It allowed us to gain empathy, and possibly sympathy, before any tests or procedures occurred which led to the thought of: will Frank return to his old life of rescuing his little sister even though he’s struggling to rescue himself?

Towards the end of the novel, we have seen the difference between the lives that Cee and Frank lived from when they were children “attached at the hip” and on to postwar when they had experienced two completely separate lives for their first time ever.  No character that was introduced throughout the novel had been able to offer sympathy for these two protagonists and all the struggles they overcame together and apart. Sometimes, offering empathy is the most one can do and still means just as much to someone who is struggling to find themselves.

Being cared for by the dentist has always been one of my biggest fears. ANY doctor for that matter, causes my blood pressure to skyrocket and I begin to sweat. Some may call this white coat syndrome, which is defined as “a phenomenon in which people exhibit a blood pressure level above the normal range, in a clinical setting, although they do not exhibit it in other settings,” almost exactly what I feel. Genetically, my teeth have been doomed to be a disaster from the start. Oral health in my family has been a struggle for almost everyone. So, keep that in mind. 

When I was younger I visited a dentist for my yearly checkup and it was a trip from hell. From the beginning I was extremely uncomfortable. The woman at the reception desk was very rude and offered no help to my mother when an insurance issue came up. 

“You just have to call your insurance company,” the woman went on to say.

My mom was groaning and pleaded for her help, as she had just spoke to the company a week or two prior when my pediatrician office was giving her difficulties. But, as expected no help was offered. 

We waited almost an hour before I was called in. I was brought into the room and sat on the uncomfortable recliner. We thanked the nurse and a few moments passed before another person walked inside. A woman, who I assumed was the dentist sat on the “spinny chair”, as I used to call it. She extended her hand and gave a small hello before she began to work on my teeth. She was rough, more than I expected, pulling at my cheeks in a hurry. I glanced at my mom and she could easily see I was in pain. My mom spoke up and asked her to stop before consoling me and making sure I was okay. Afterwards, she spoke to the dentist outside for a moment shortly before we left.

Since that first incident, I have switched dentists around four to five times now. Some are for reasons such as insurance, as it is difficult to find a dentist who takes mine in the first place. In class, we read an article about people traveling at least five hours to wait in line for hours to meet with one of the 116 dentists. Also, in the article, a dentist had sent a patient, “with impacted wisdom teeth 120 miles to find a dental specialist who accepts Medicaid.”

That line in particular made me think of a similar incident I had. I had to get my wisdom teeth out in December of 2018 and had to travel an hour and a half to get the procedure done. I remember barely being able to withstand the pain as my teeth were pushing through my gums, sideways. Since I had to be put under a local anesthetic and all four teeth were impacted, the cost almost doubled. A single impacted tooth costs around $225 to $600. Some insurances cover up to half if medically necessary, and some cap a patient at $2,000 a YEAR for dental insurance. I find this outrageous. I would not want to experience the feeling of hope, yet doubt, ever again when I wasn’t even sure how much money this procedure would cost. Thankfully, I was fully covered by the state. 

Having insurance through the state, due to my father, most certainly has its pros and cons. As per the article we read in class, “ …only about 38 percent of dentists accept Medicaid — about half the rate of physicians,” which I find oddly interesting. If the state accepts and offers lower-income patients to dental insurance, why do so many dentists not accept it?  I believe that if the state offers this option to many recipients, then more places should accept it as it assists the state and insurance companies in the long run.

I have struggled with this question since it was proposed to me. I have mulled it over and over through my head searching for an answer, and I haven’t found one. Through the readings and discussions within this course I have begun to understand that even with informed consent there are moments where we don’t get to consent at all, or moments where what we may have consented to is not taken into account. This question and examining of these events has also lead me to see informed consent in a new way, and the future of it as well.

This question was first given to me while reading Clay’s Ark, a book that starts with a kidnapping, an act that lacks consent. From there, both Blake and Rane are infected without their consent, and I fixated on how the organism would make Rane want to have children. Rane makes it clear she doesn’t want to have children, especially one that would look and act like  Jacob. I fixated on how after becoming infected Rane lost the ability to choose things like having kids because the disease took over elements of her personality. Even Keira who did consent to being infected, can’t change her mind once she makes that choice, and she has no control over what parts of her the organism would change. How can we consent to something we have no idea will affect us? How do much consent do we have when we are going about our daily life?  Even Rane loses consent at the hands of the car family who sexually abuse her. Events such as that, or a kidnapping, or forced infection, while wrong, do happen, and we only have so much control over them. Informed consent can not protect us in those moments.

My pondering became even more complex as we read Zone One. As Mark Spitz and his group clear out the bodies of those infected with the plague. Mark Spitz reflects on how they used to dispose of bodies by throwing them out of windows, saying: “It was disrespectful. It was unhygienic. Frankly, it was unpatriotic.” (pg.75). We have talked in class about the disrespectful use of one’s remains after death, and I couldn’t help but think about this act lacking consent. Because the skels can’t talk and are seen as a danger in this world, they aren’t given a say in what happens to them after they are killed. Before they were thrown out of windows, an act that destroyed their bodies and showed a careless nature to preserving the person they once were. Later, we see the bodies being burned, and their ashes fall through the city. The act of burning one’s body also destroys what is left of that person, and the scattering of one’s ashes shows a lack of preserving these people. No one who was thrown out of a building, or had their body burned consented. In the world of Zone One the wishes of the dead is an afterthought, and what   they may have consented to is not a major concern. 

So how do we preserve consent in times like this? How, if an event like this occurs, do we keep the consent of the dead from being violated? How much consent will we have in times like that? I don’t know and I still don’t have an answer. What I do have is an idea.

We uphold informed consent as the gold standard of consent. That in order to consent to anything we need to know the full array of risks and benefits. We also can’t be pressured into consenting, and we need to be able to back out at anytime. I’ve been over this in my research methods class and in any SONA system experiment I have participated in. But within our daily life we don’t always get informed consent. People come to class sick, we aren’t always made aware of this, and we may get sick as a result. People just sign the laptop after given the basic rundown of the next medical procedure they need. They trust their doctors, as they should, but most will not ask for an in-depth explanation or read the fine print. We just sign and say “I consent.” People also still ignore the consent of others, there are still areas were informed consent is not in place. So how much consent do we really have? I guess the only way to find out is to keep pushing for informed consent. For the evolution of informed consent as we find it’s shortcomings and as times change. The only way to work towards more consent is to keep improving upon what we have now. We compare the lack of consent in the past to the informed consent we have now, marveling at how far we have come, being able to see the change clearly. As we move forward in trying to expand informed consent, hopefully we will be able to see the change clearly as well. Hopefully, it will continue to protect more people, and show us the consent we have, and are still lacking.

Earlier in the semester, I wrote a blog post named Having a Cup of Tea, and it talked on how the video called Tea and Consent touched on the issues of consent in the novel Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler. As I looked back, I realized that there was not just an issue on consent in the novel but an issue of sexual consent. In the video, it only speaks on a person giving verbal yes or no and if they are in the right frame of mind to give consent. With this, I ask, was Kiera in Clay’s Ark, in the right state of mind? Did she make the right decision?

In the Tea and Consent video, it uses a cup of tea as a metaphoric symbol that represents sexual intercourse. Throughout the video, it goes through a step by step description for each scenario when it comes to having sexual intercourse. For example, if you are making a cup of tea and the person is unresponsive, do not make them a cup of tea and do not ask the question, “do you want a cup of tea?”. In no way can an unresponsive person answer due to the fact they are unresponsive. Do not force tea down someone’s throat if they cannot speak for themselves; most likely, they do not want the tea. Another is if you make someone a cup of tea and ask if they want a cup of tea and they accept it, then they want a cup of tea. If you make someone a cup of tea and they say no, do not force that person to drink the tea. As well as if you make the tea and the person says yes but later says no, still do not force tea down their throat.
Now when looking at Clay’s Ark and knowing the guidelines of the Tea and Consent video, there is a notion that maybe one of the characters gave ideal action or verbal consent, but in reality, gave consent in the wrong state of mind. In Clays’s Ark, Blake and his twin daughters Kiera and Rane, are captured by a group that holds an infectious disease that can be transmitted by touch. The disease is an organism that will co-host with one’s body and gives that person heighten human abilities, but with the disease has such a substantial effect on the body, older people tend to not survive through the transition. Kiera is the first of her kind to come into contact with the group due to her having leukemia. Because of her leukemia, if she gets infected, her chances of living are unknown. With this organism, Blake and Rane were both infected nonconsensually, expect Kiera. “She reached out and took Eli’s hands. She had been waiting to do that for so long. The hands first pulled back from her, but did not pull away…the hands closed on her hands, giving in finally, and in spite of everything, she smiled.” (Butler, 552-553). Keria is a 16-year-old girl with leukemia, who just experienced being kidnapped with her family. She has been aware they have a disease that can heighten one’s human abilities, and if given to her, it could increase or decrease her chances of survival. I feel as maybe Kiera understands the possibilities, but did not analyze them. Kiera was allowed to survive. Eli, the leader of the group, was giving her that chance. However, with time, Kiera developed feelings, which lead to the skeptical decisions shes made. “I know part of the reason I want you is that I’m…dying. But it is you I want. Not just a warm body. Before you I didn’t want anyone. There were some guys who wanted me, even after I got sick, but I never.. I thought I would never…” (Butler, 560). I have noticed throughout the semester in class discussions when one goes through traumatic experiences, everything to mood, actions, and thoughts change. As humans, we never honestly know what we want, especially after extreme events as the ones Kiera has gone through. Maybe she feels this is her only option, but did she choose the right option?

Looking at both Tea and Consent Video, and Clay’s Ark, I feel as maybe Kiera allowed the situation to cloud her judgment. I think Kiera is the unresponsive person who, in no way, is cable to make a big decision as such but makes it anyway. Out of everyone, she had the option not to be infected. However, she decided to be, all because of a guy she started to love. If I had the opportunity to ask her, I would ask, What about your father or sister whos been held under their will? Was she in the right state in mind? With Kiera, I think she was not in the right mind due to all the traumatic events, and love. Love makes us humans do the unthinkable, but love makes it think it is doable, that it is right. In the end, Keira survived, but it came with a price, the death of her family. Overall, I know that everything from the outside world, to the world within us affects everything we do. It is just up to us as humans to understand the situation and learn how to walk away.

Within much of the literature we’ve read has been emphasis or at least mention of people’s bodies being on display. We find it in Zulus with Alice Acitophel, Fortune’s Bones, Medical Apartheid, and Zone One. We find the body on display outside of literature too, as for example in the Body Worlds exhibit which shows off preserved corpses for the sake of education. In all of these cases, there has been a clear lack of consent—Alice did not consent to having her body displayed by the rebels, Fortune did not consent to being placed in a museum, those whose bodies were used in Medical Apartheid often did so without consent and especially without informed consent, and the stragglers’ bodies were used by the uninfected for entertainment (102), and body parts were also displayed for entertainment (6).

Outside of the literature, the Body Worlds exhibit, like its competitor BODIES… The Exhibition uses bodies of people who had not consented to be used in this way. Many of the bodies used by Body Worlds are thought to have been from the remains of (non-consenting) “homeless people, prisoners and indigent hospital patients.” BODIES… The Exhibition outright admits to using bodies that came from non-willing donors. When we see a clear connection between the present use of unwilling bodies in the two educational exhibitions, and the non-consensual treatment of black bodies in Medical Apartheid, we can be safe in assuming that it isn’t an accident that the black authors of Zulus, Fortune’s Bones, and Zone One all include bodies being forcefully placed on display. This common theme throughout the works invites some difficult questions, especially this: Even if bodies are placed on display for educational purposes as in Body Worlds and BODIES… The Exhibition, is there more lost through the exploitation of unwilling bodies than what is gained through public education?  

Along with most people, my relationship with group projects has been very strained. I often found myself either being a sole contributor or having little to offer. My difficulties lay in the uncertainty of thinking that I either know nothing or my respective partners don’t care enough to contribute. Despite these things, I find it exceptionally important to state that the group work done in this class was not only enjoyable, but also beneficial. To be quite frank, I dreaded the thought of a group blog post. I am very stubborn; when I believe something is correct my mind rarely strays from the fact that I’m correct. This is obviously problematic, it certainly doesn’t make my life easier, especially when considering that I’m wrong most of the time (who would’ve thought.) However, when addressing our blog post, I found it particularly easy to discuss our thoughts on the matter. As a group, the issue of consent was ironically not an issue. Our thought processes seemed to coincide, and whenever there was an issue, that issue was resolved by a simple discussion that in no way hindered our ability to be productive. We decided early on that each person would be in charge of a portion of the blog post, and we then discussed how we wanted to address each portion. The end result was what I consider to be one of the best group projects that I had ever been a part of. Not only did I maintain an interest in the topic, I felt like I had contributed in a meaningful way, and I was appreciative of the insight that my group had given. Overall, that exercise was an example of when group projects are productive. It seems basic, but there is often a degree of difficulty when it comes to sharing one’s ideas with a group of people who may not necessarily agree. Was it perfect? Of course not. There will never be perfection when performing the balancing act that is many different ideas in a conclusive essay. Despite this, I have a newfound appreciation for group projects, especially when it means everyone in said project gets to showcase their strengths.