In seeking to better understand the concept, I found a broad definition of consent from Merriam-Webster dictionary that reads, “compliance in or approval of what is done or proposed by another.” This means that there are at least two parties, a seeker and a provider of consent. The SUNY policy handout from class offers additional details to inform our understanding, including the statement that consent “is clear.” It further explains, “Affirmative consent is a clear, unambiguous, knowing, informed, and voluntary agreement…” If we are considering consent in non-sexual contexts, then the logistics of clear, affirmative consent can be complicated. Should you ask permission every time you want to rant to a friend about your day? Are you responsible for seeking permission to use a project group chat on the weekends? To seek permission for these things would certainly limit the risk of doing harm to others, but it would be impossible to anticipate and prepare for all ways that such harm could occur. Because of this, I can see the “gray area” that Jessica refers to in her most recent blog post. Continue reading “Authors’ Consent”
Consent as a Grey Area
Recently I was having a discussion with my of my friends who has a learning disability. She was telling me that this semester in one of her classes her professor does “popcorn reading,” otherwise known as calling on a student randomly to read out loud. Although, her learning disability is something that she does have a good grasp on at this point in her life, she still struggles with reading out loud. As a result she dreads going to that particular class. This brings up a very interesting question for all of us who are apart of the collegiate community. Should professors ask their students for their consent when it comes to things like randomly calling on them in class or as students of the college do we automatically give our consent when we pay our tuition bills and register for our classes? Continue reading “Consent as a Grey Area”
History Through Song
The first time I heard the song “Wade in the Water,” I was a freshman in high school scrolling through Spotify. I came across the artist Jamie N Commons, whose voice caught my attention, and so I looked around on his page. At the time, one of his more recent covers was “Wade in the Water” and so I clicked on it and gave it a listen. Without knowing its deeper meaning, I loved the song. The way Commons sang the song with his low and raspy voice captivated me, and so I continued to listen to it.
Four years later, I found myself at Geneseo, enrolled in a multitude of different classes, including a writing seminar on the Civil Rights Movement. While sitting in class one early Tuesday morning, Dr. Crosby showed us a video on singing in the Civil Rights Movement. Lo and behold, the activists in the video were singing the song “Wade in the Water.” While it wasn’t exactly Common’s raspy, low voice I had grown accustomed to in high school, the lyrics and the beat were the same. It was undeniably the same song. Continue reading “History Through Song”
The Sense in Consensual
Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild” freaked me out. When I first finished the story, I was left with this nightmarish feeling of uneasiness. As an avid fan of horror films and literature, this response was not a typical one for me. There was more to my uneasiness than just Butler’s take on the bot-fly description–albeit pretty gross. During our group discussion on Monday, other classmates shared similar reactions. It wasn’t until our group began to discuss the presence and absence of consent in the piece that I was able to piece together what creeped me: it challenges how we view consent.
The piece is not completely devoid of consent. There is an almost contractual agreement that the characters follow regarding T’Gatoi. The situation that is presented in the story is not a great one, but no one really tries to escape it. Our group jumped into the conversion of what makes consent consensual. Does lack of consent always equate a evil harmful situation? In some cases, like sexual consent, absolutely. Lack of consent is always harmful and damaging in that context. But what about our births? Does our lack of consent to be born harm us? What about the material that we as assigned for a class? I have found some of my favorite novels and poems in college. I did not choose them; they were chosen for me. How about being placed on the Dean’s List and other academic lists? As far as I know, students do not consent to being placed on a searchable list that credits their academic success. You just get an email informing you that you are now on the Dean’s List.
These all feel like instances were lack of consent is not necessarily a negative thing. Not being able to consent can protect us. For example, our consent laws in New York were not given to every individual in the state in order to O.K them before they became laws. Our consent laws are not consensual, but they give us the ability to give consent or take it away. Internet history functions in a similar way. There is no way–unless you are far better with computers than I am–to completely delete your internet history or what you post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. We post on the internet with the understanding that we will never be able to delete our posts, but understanding does not equate consent. The alternative to that would be frightening, far more so than how things are now.
“Bloodchild” sparked a string of thoughts that I did not expect. I’m still trying to work out what the story is about; I could have used three class periods worth of talking it out. This theme of consent is one that will be sticking with me throughout the semester.
Adapting through Voice and Authority
Throughout the past few classes of Dr. McCoy’s African American Literature class, we have been talking a lot about authority, originality, and voice. This has gotten me to start thinking about Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass’ stories in Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition. Jacobs and Douglass both told their stories about their own lives through slavery, and how they may have changed their story to grab a certain audience’s attention. Douglass and Jacobs use their voices to show their audiences about their own experiences and what happened during their lives as slaves by telling their stories.
Labels: Necessary or a Nuisance?
When it comes to the human race, we have a tendency to create hierarchies amongst ourselves to get further ahead in society, so to speak. The etymology of the word label comes from Old French meaning “narrow band or strip of cloth,” or “lapp” in Germanic.” In our class discussion last week Monday, we talked about the difference between an author and a writer, then we went over Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1781) which made we question, “what is the significance of labels, other than differentiating one thing from another?” I am well aware that I might not receive a concrete answer to this question, but at least I can put it out there for others to contemplate as well.
Side note: I will be discussing race and ethnicity with examples from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1781). Even though I won’t be going that much into detail, I would like to forewarn what can be expected in this blog.
My Pivot Is So Strong
As my previous blog post discusses noticing, a concept that I observed in “African-American Women’s Quilting” by Elsa Barkley Brown was the statement: pivot the center. Pivoting the center entails understanding one’s self first and in that sense, the ability to identify and classify self-awareness. By first being able to identify one’s own strength, weaknesses, and prior background experiences, would then only one be comfortable and confident enough in their identity. When there is an element of uncertainty in terms of one’s identity, a lack of confidence and direction can be felt. A great deal of self-awareness may occur in this process as at times, an identity may have to deal with the balancing of two different systems: one at home and one at school, for example.
Recursion in Hollywood
The past few classes have sparked me to think about the concept of originality, particularly when it comes to Hollywood with films and television. Ask yourself- how many films or TV shows have you seen that are original ideas and were made in recent years? The answer probably isn’t many. Many of the things produced today are based off of other people’s stories. This can include other writers’ books, following similar plot lines of previous works, other people’s life experiences or are simply sequels or remakes to a successful film of the past. In the simplest terms there aren’t many original pieces of entertainment being produced today. Hollywood is trying to imitate what has worked in the past. Continue reading “Recursion in Hollywood”
The Question of “Why” in a Cycle of Growth and Shrinkage
One of the most important questions I ask when attempting to understand tradition in any realm of life, social, religious, or cultural, is the “why?” I have never been one to take things for what they are, I am inquisitive, however tradition seems to be one of those things that I have trouble getting to the bottom of. As a historian I seek the roots of all things because I believe that it leads to a more modern understanding of present-day issues.
Continue reading “The Question of “Why” in a Cycle of Growth and Shrinkage”
Importance of African American literature
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, African American literature is defined as a “body of literature written by Americans of African descent.”
Before, taking any classes in college I did not know that literature could be driven by any culture. Literature is a form of communication and a way of conveying knowledge and it is what has controlled humanity’s mindset for decades and still does. When children begin their schooling they are taught the alphabet, phonetics, words, and they learn how to read sentences and eventually they’re timed by how fast they can read and interpret their reading. Eventually it becomes a habit of simply taking in what is on the page and configuring puzzled and metaphoric quotes and vocabulary words.
African American literature is also taught to children but in a a different way. Once the minds of children have been stimulated enough so that they can comprehend complex stories and important factors such as geographic locations, cultures, the existence of various languages and the importance of all of those components, teachers have the opportunity to teach history. The most important historical concepts that are taught in educational institutions in the United States are from the origins of North America and how we got to where we are today. The importance of teaching children those concepts are so that they can understand that everything that has been done to level up to where we are now, should not be taken for granted.
African American literature is a form of reading a history textbook. When you open a book written by an Afro-writer, especially written before the 1980s like the “Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison or “Not with Laughter” by Langston Hughes, you are not reading your average book, you are reading a piece of perspective. When I read the “Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, my eyes glistened and I was shocked by how much I learned about the culture and the amount of respect African Americans had received before the 1960s. I was able to find that African American individuals were still treated unfairly after Jim Crow laws were passed and the way that I learned that was through vivid details that seem like exaggerations but were 100% true. Although the story was not exactly true, it exemplified the actual mannerisms and events that would happen during those times.
Literature is written to provoke others to learn more and to respect what they are reading. African American literature should be respected by not only Americans but by other people who come from countries that have also been affected by the historical events that provoked Africans to write their stories and share them.
The article, “Who reads an American book”, Smith questions, “In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?” Although these questions are asked to prove a point. I find that Afro-literature in general is so important to read that everyone should be educated about not only African American literature but, Afro-latino literature, and direct African literature. Most of the time in schools we are taught to focus on the American perspective but if you are able to read what happened during the early 1800s for example in Virginia, Colombia and Senegal you can then gain access to the a broad perspective of what was happening globally rather than just knowing one perspective.
Literature allows everyone to express their thoughts and share information. At times, literature can also be a shout of help for others. For Afro- writers, literature can be both.