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In all three of Morrison’s works that we read for this class, there was an element of both/and that taught me something about collaboration. The first work that we read and collaborated on was a both/and of doing the right thing. The second work we collaborated on taught me about the both/and of love and finding yourself. The final work we collaborated on taught me about the both/and of justice and seeing what others see.

Morrison’s first work that we discussed in class was Beloved, which was centered around an act that the right thing to do was not the character’s right. The collaboration around this work helped me to understand the both/and that Morrison had set up, as well as teaching me that both/and. The right thing to do in the book was for the children to die, even if it was not the main character’s right to kill the children. The right thing to do in this collaboration was to let others tell me how they view the book, even if it is not the same way I see it.

Throughout this collaboration, my mind was changed on how I see Paul D, a main character in the first book. I saw him at first as a cold and violent figure that had no business in 124. To me, he was a man with excuses for how he treats others and how he sees the world. Once this collaboration started and I began talking to peers about Paul D more in depth, I began to understand Paul D a little more. “These dehumanizing acts led to the version of Paul D seen in 124 that is often violent and cold, and depicts the world around him as Hell” (Beloved collaboration). As the collaboration progressed and we really had to settle into how we as a group were going to talk about Paul D, I began to understand that he was both a victim and a human. Paul D is cold and violent because that was the way his world was for a very long time, he is a victim of his environment. He is also only human, even if he is a fictional character created by Morrison. She was able to show his humanity through the cold acts, because he thought he was doing the right thing by keeping people away from himself. The both/and of this collaboration helped me to understand that people will always see the world differently from me, but I should hear all sides before deciding. 

The second work that we collaborated on was Jazz and to me this work focused on love and what love is not. Both Morrison and Dante focused on the types of love and feelings that come with being human. Love cannot be mapped out and planned like traveling to and from work, even though we were able to map the stories on to each other. Love and feelings are a both/and of being human, you have to love both the people you want to love and you have to love yourself. Just as Joe moves through the story to find his forgiveness and love for himself, I moved through the story to find my own feelings and to understand the feelings of others. 

Through the story, I often could relate to Joe as he found himself working through the stages of changing. I have changed many times throughout my life, each time taught me something both new and old about myself. “A lack of a father figure was a significant source of envy for Joe as a child and young man, and having someone in that role purges Joe of his envy, directly mapping to the progression of the terraces of Mount Purgatory.” (Jazz Collaboration page 3). In my life I have had to separate from my family to better myself, similarly to how Joe had to find a family. The change in my life from being surrounded by a toxic family to having the family I chose was significant to my understanding that Joe found his own family and therefore found himself. 

Throughout the collaborative process, I found out that many of my group members also felt that Joe was depicting how it feels to be human and be in love. Joe was holding on to the love that was lost with Violet, just as he was letting go of the lust he felt with Dorcas. We have all felt the pain of losing a love you thought you could keep, it is about growing into yourself and finding who you are. Being human is about accepting who you are along with the faults you have. 

The third and final work that we collaborated on was Paradise which taught me to be who I am and stand my ground against others. The both/and of this work was to both stand up for what is right and to understand that not everyone will see eye to eye on everything. The parts that stood out to me from the actual work were the parts around belief and what scripture means. The citizens of this town are divided on the meaning of a line of scripture from long ago days, oh so similarly to the real life divide of religion. I grew up in a religiously divided family, I can relate to that societal pressure of how words are written versus how they are translated. “Oven shifts its purpose after the rebuilding, a symbolic gesture of the origins of the Convent, yet the rebuilding of the Oven signifies something much larger than a simple plaque with the motto of the community” (Paradise Collaboration page 2). As I grew up and grew into my own beliefs, I started to understand the divide, every side wanting to be correct and the older generations wanting to preserve what they understand. I grew into myself and my religious views; as I read the book, I felt myself remembering the times when I was unsure and following what I felt was right. 

The collaboration for this work taught me how to see what others see without taking it to heart. I understand that collaboration is about working together and blending multiple ideas and views; but at times it is important to believe what you do and not let others influence you. I can hear out the many different explanations for what happens and why, but I am allowed to understand it and interpret it in the way I want to. That is why collaboration is important, it can change you, solidify your thoughts or any combination of things. 

All of these collaborations taught me that both being present and listening to my peers is the best way to learn and to teach. In becoming a teacher throughout my time as a college student, I have learned that communication is one of the most important tools you will ever need. Discussing the works in this class changed my perspective on being right, giving and receiving love and seeing what others see. When I am a teacher in the fall, I will remember that collaboration changes people’s perspective on even the smallest things. You do not always have the right to do the right thing, sometimes you have to leave it up to others to do it right. Showing how you love comes in many ways, as well as learning about who you are through that love. Finally, you do not always have to see the same things the same way as everyone else, but do respect how they see things and listen to them. I can not wait to take these lessons with me through my teaching career and see what unfolds before me through these lessons I can now teach my students.

I have come to realize that I don’t hate group assignments, but rather, I have this recurring fear of either doing too much work or too little work. Every time a group assignment is announced, I can feel my heart sink to my stomach because yet again I am placed in this predicament of working with other people. I think it stems from people not working in good faith, or maybe it is the stigma that a vast majority of students share. One thing I would like to point out is that in Professor McCoy’s classes, regardless of it being the Toni Morrison class or the Black Apocalyptic Fiction one, she never (at least I don’t think so) refers to our group essays as that. She has constructed the term collaborative essays, which doesn’t have the negative connotations associated with group essays. 

Speaking of the two classes I have taken with Professor McCoy, it is important to note that before I can get to thinking about collaborations, I must first express that collaboration looks different depending on the people in your group. The collaboration I practiced in McCoy’s Black Apocalyptic Fiction course during the fall of 2022 focused heavily on the people in my small grouping typing the ideas as the rest of us formulated sentences. While we had split up into groups to work on the different moves, nobody could take credit for writing a specific paragraph because all of our voices were interconnected and threaded through the assignment, even though there was one person typing everything up. In that Welles classroom, collaborative writing took on a more bridged tone, but even then, there was the fear of not doing enough in the back of my mind, especially when I thought I wasn’t contributing enough ideas to the typer. McCoy’s collaborations took on a different form when I entered her Toni Morrison course this semester. Though we were still working together in small groups, it felt more independent. We found ourselves breaking off into groups based on the moves we wanted to work on, and even in those groups, I found that we all worked on portions of the move separately, then came together to make sure everything flowed. It felt like I was working on an independent project. As someone who enjoys putting headphones in and just typing away, I thoroughly enjoyed this form of collaboration. Even though it may seem as if we were working on different parts of a team, the collaborative efforts were still visible when we brainstormed at the beginning of the assignment, when we came together to write the last move (the conclusion), and when we revised the entirety of the paper––taking things out and fixing sentence structures––before submission. In this class, the collaboration felt both independent and linked to each of us in the group, alleviating any fears that arose about my work ethic.

Within our efforts to interpret Toni Morrison’s work, the practice of collaboration is evident through her characters. In Beloved, Paul D is imprisoned in Alfred, Georgia. He is chained to the other Black men that are also imprisoned there and they face inhumane treatment throughout their sentence. When a storm hits, they are locked back in their underground boxes and left there, but after several days, the rain and mud loosen their confinements, making escape possible. Since they are still chain-linked, each man must rely on one another, working collaboratively to escape. By pulling on their chains to let each other know where they are going, everyone is able to follow Hi Man’s lead. Morrison uses this representation of teamwork to demonstrate how those men escaped their unfortunate confinement and found their way toward freedom. When they finally break out of the prison, they continue on their way together and eventually run into Native Americans who help them break the restraints. Even then, the men don’t separate right away. Some stay longer than others but they do remain in each other’s presence for a little bit before moving on. One can interpret this form of good-faith collaboration to have had an effect on those men’s lives, allowing them to make it out of the storm. They put their trust in each other and do their part so that escape is effective and successful. From this, I have learned that when members of a collaborative effort trust one another and put their faith in each other, the end result can be liberating. 

As mentioned before, collaboration doesn’t have a clear format, rather, it takes on many different formations. In Morrison’s Paradise, readers are introduced to another form of collaboration. The older generation of men in Ruby and KD come together, congregating around the Oven to discuss the women in the Convent. They go around, putting in their ideologies and beliefs about the women that live there and the women’s role in the events taking place in Ruby. Collectively, these men decide that they have to stage a coup because if they don’t the Convent women’s influence will continue to affect Ruby poorly. As a group, they carry guns to the Convent and attack the women there. In my opinion, this was a form of bad-faith collaboration. While they did come together and talk over their actions before proceeding, they didn’t really listen to the voices of other people in the town prior to that meeting. They ignored the younger generations’ pleas and actions toward autonomy and self-reliance. They ignored Reverend Misner pushing them for reform in Ruby. They even ignore the friendship between Connie and Soane, and all of the good Connie has done for the town. They listen to their twisted words and decide that killing these women would be more conducive to the survival of Ruby than anything else they may have come up with. For all of these reasons, though they took their own opinions and ideas into account, they refused to see the other side of things, making this collaboration rash and futile. 

Working with others in most respects is collaboration, but as one can see through Morrison’s writing, not all collaborative efforts are in good faith. From reading Morrison’s trilogy––Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise––to working in our small groups, I have come to understand the importance of collaboration. One thing I would like to point out is that without collaboration, my ideas would never have been flushed out. I enjoyed taking the first day of collaborations to brainstorm different ideas and pick out quotes from the materials we were using. I remember that for the Purgatorio/Jazz collaboration, I didn’t have a lot to say, especially since we were discussing the structure of Manhattan during the Harlem Renaissance and its connection to Dante’s layout of Purgatory. However, as we continued to bounce ideas off of one another, Genesis brought us back to the idea that during the day, Black people in this novel (and during the Harlem Renaissance) would make their way down Manhattan to work for White people and then back up at night; she also said that the White people would make their way up toward Harlem for entertainment. This spurred our group to think about how mobility both within the City and to the City was possible for the characters in Jazz, which differed from the people in Dante’s Divine Comedy, who weren’t able to enter purgatory from hell and begin repentance through upward mobility. Collaborating with one another also made it possible to organize ideas. I think that when writing without an outline, it can sometimes be difficult for me because I am not sure what to include and what not to include. However, working in the different groups pertaining to each move, I was able to discuss with the other two people what our portion should focus on. It also gave me the chance to fact-check any ideas before writing them down. I remember turning to Izzy during the second collaboration and asking her a series of questions about where Joe and Violet had lived before coming to the City because I didn’t want anything to be imprecise. Izzy then referred back to the book and gave me specific page numbers to use, which was extremely helpful. Working with the same people for three collaborative essays allowed me to get comfortable with expressing my opinions and made the process of writing our last essay much easier since we had perfected our process through the other two collaborations.

Moving away from the topic of collaboration in this class, I think that as I continue on my journey here at Geneseo, I have to take all of the good-faith practices learned with me into my final year here while leaving behind this fear of group work. It is easy to fall into the habit of working alone, but as I am involved in many aspects of campus life, I find that working with others isn’t only prevalent in the classroom, but also outside of it. I have a job apart of Student Life, where I work with two other Student Involvement Mentors (SIMs) to ensure that organizations and clubs at Geneseo can function properly. This position demands a lot of collaboration, with my fellow co-workers, with our supervisor, and with the e-boards of these organizations. In doing so, I have to be able to communicate concisely and clearly. I have to be understanding of other people’s perspectives. And I have to make space and take space while in staff meetings. If I did not have good practice collaborative skills, working in this job wouldn’t be possible because my co-workers and I work closely together, answering emails, registering clubs, and petitioning for pictures to be placed in the Union. We have discovered a great balance in letting each other know when our part is done, while also not stepping on anyone’s toes. We are also very specific about letting each other know when we need something done and what we need.  

By working on this dynamic team, I am preparing for my future career goal. While school psychology may seem like an independent field, especially since most schools only have one, it is my job to speak with parents, teachers, and other faculty members at schools so that students are accessing all of the educational opportunities allotted to them. As I continue to pursue my dreams in this field, I hope to keep everything I have learned from this class, Morrison, and Professor McCoy circulating in the back of my mind so that I can maintain the good-faith practice of collaboration; contribute to the larger community of people in this field––and supporting fields––to better serve the population I choose to work with in the future.

I would like to illustrate some gruesome, ghastly consequences of August 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and its subsequent relief response inflicted on the proud, passionate denizens of New Orleans. The waterlogged bodies of cherished loved ones meander and dwell in swamped, putrid city streets rife with rot. Said streets have been unrecognizably mangled and uprooted into jagged, desolate landscapes, filled with the anguished cries of those with fervent enough will to return. Countless exhausted, defeated citizens confined to dwelling in their ever-accumulating filth in a shelter whose resilience and competence as such crumbled too many weeks ago. They are assured by a visiting former first lady Barbara Bush that due to their “underprivileged” state, “this is working really well for them”, conscripted to play the role of pitiable supernumeraries appreciative of any morsel of aid the government graciously extends their way. Spike Lee deliberately highlights these abhorrent glimpses into carnage in his documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. I believe some of his intentions were to convey how negligence towards the strife of others and an apathy towards care can precipitate rampant violence among the recipients of said apathy. Violence never fails to manifest and fester in society in an abundance of ways. I feel as though this can be attributed to the intrinsic amorphousness of which the concept of violence can cultivate and proliferate as. Violence can be as macrocosmic as pertaining to an entire society being thrusted into turmoil over a geological catastrophe or a series of fervent civil protests. It can relish on a more microcosmic scale as well, injecting heaps of torment into an individual’s emotional health. Spike Lee offers fruitful insight and perspective through his documentary into how a lack of care facilitates violence to flourish. However, Lee does not abstain from demonstrating an inverse, how a wellspring of care and passion can prove an impetus for emotional violence as well. A woman and her son return to their home following the aftermath of Katrina to assess the structural state of their home, only to be stricken with intense despair and lament while looking upon its ravaged, defiled state. Out of care for oneself and family, violence becomes rife throughout stores and streets to protect the vestiges of their home and community they invested so much labor and passion into. A turbulent marring of emotions swells within those who are compelled to confront the loss of cherished loved ones. While I am not insisting that these emotions and passions are bad or unwarranted, I am proposing that it is entirely possible for violence to exist as care. Saidiya Hartman’s assertion that “Care is the antidote to violence” fails to recognize these prospects, only accounting for how an utter lack of care can exacerbate the influence of violence. I believe this course provides ample evidence to propose that violence can exist through the intrinsic intensity of which an individual’s passions erupt into when said passions are threatened or tarnished in some manner. 

Violence can exist due to the ardent extent of someone’s care. This notion is affirmed in Joseph Roach’s “Echoe in the Bone”, an intensive discussion and reflection of Circum Atlantic performance. In his writings Roach proclaims that “Violence in human culture always serves, one way or another, to make a point”. If Roach is affirming that violence is seldom acted without intent or conviction, then I believe it is reasonable to suggest that a substantial catalyst of care is an intrinsic necessity for violence to thrive or act. Roach additionally posits that “all violence is excessive, because to be fully demonstrative, to make its point, it must spend things–material objects, blood, environments”. Here, Roach further fortifies the assertion that the presence of care invested into an obstacle can often precipitate violent situations. I believe that humanity’s need to “make a point” through their passions or beliefs can inflict collateral consequences onto unwilling victims if this passion breaches into gratuity. Roach himself states that to fully demonstrate one’s caliber of care, they may resort into expressing their sentiments in tumultuous, violent ways that come at a deficit of “material objects” and “environments” around them. If Roach affirms that “violence is excessive”, then I believe it is plausible to propose the degree of care that fuels said violence must be corresponding to that same measure of excessiveness. “Echoes in the Bone” also explores the roles effigies play in violence. Roach explains in his writings that Effigies are surrogate constructs whose sole existence serves to be the target of someone’s anger or fierce emotion. It is a common practice to burn and scorch these effigies, acts that are both inextricably associated with violent or forceful sentiments. I affirm that this demonstrates another way for violence to exist due to an abundance of care and passion. Anger itself exists solely due to an overflowing torrent of emotion within one’s psyche, an excess of care for a given topic or situation. The existence of effigies demonstrates it is a desired practice to purge this tremendous tumult of emotion through violent activities. I believe through his rumination on the intricate components of violence Roach can fortify the notion that violent situations flourish when individuals desire an outlet to relief or express an overflow of fervency and investment towards another entity, whether it be a person, place, or belief.

            The various readings throughout our course effectively demonstrate mankind’s penchant to cultivate violence from their flourishing surplus of care and fierce sentiments. This is additionally evident throughout William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, wherein Prospero, a former Duke of Milan, conjures up a ruthless, colossal torrent of a storm to sink his brother Antonio’s shift out of fervent revenge for deposing him during a coup. Prospero is willing to contort and submit reality itself to his will to acquire a sufficient medium to exert his violent, adamant emotions regarding this treachery. His violent deed fuels further unrest on the vessel his contempt has fixed upon, with the crew frivolously hurling the blame onto others for their misfortune and recklessly insisting someone “lie drowning the washing of ten tides” as punishment. I believe this demonstrates the infectiousness of which one violent deed fueled by impassioned wrath can inflict similar heedless, destructive emotions onto others. Prospero’s actions here jeopardize both the physical state of those he possesses scorn for and pollute their emotions as well. The crew begins lashing out in a violent manner to manage their influx of sentiments towards a turbulent situation. Prospero’s fervent, furious response at an opportunity to express his scorn for this treachery is further fueled by his love for his daughter, Miranda. I believe it is evident that Prospero vehemently desires to support his daughter and provide her with the lavish life of leisure that she has been robbed of. He mentions that she has been the pillar of which his resolve has been fortified upon throughout their remote plight, declaring to her “(T)hou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile, Infused with a fortitude from heaven.” Prospero’s adamant care he expresses for his daughter and pride in his deprived prestige is what compels him to unleash violence at the expense of others’ safety. If Prospero’s anger and resolve were not as fervent, I affirm he would not have needed to express his scorn in such a colossal, calamitous fashion. His fierce compulsion to demonstrate his impassioned sentiments in such a violent manner he is willing to warp both his environment and surrounding fellow man in a manner of magnitude that transcends the confines of a normal man. This demonstrates the drastic, destructive measures one will take to appropriately convey the scale of their care and sentimental investments.

            An excess of care can manifest itself in violent, emotionally turbulent ways. This is a notion explored in Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler, a compendium of poems conveying the tumultuous agony, betrayal, and wounds imposed upon the people of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. One poem, “Voodoo V: Enemy Be Gone”, encapsulates the harmful ramifications fervent investment into one’s community can inflict upon their psyche. The speaker in this poem laments about the various ways Katrina damaged New Orleans, reflecting in a wistful, yet bitter manner about how Hurricane Katrina “took with her a kingdom of sax and dream books”. I believe this line makes it explicit that the speaker possesses considerable passion and investment in their environment, their community, that was so mercilessly marred by Katrina’s force. Exclaiming that this storm “took” with it a kingdom suggests the speaker feels scorn over being robbed of the bountiful, vivacious culture they have come to cherish so greatly. The notion of Katrina robbing it from them adds a deeply personal component to the loss, as if it were a deliberate act of malice by Katrina. The speaker additionally mentions how “the storm left a wound seeping” because of its catastrophic deeds. This confirms that the speaker’s emotional well-being has indeed been lacerated and devastated because of Katrina. I believe the tremendous care and passion they exhibit for their city’s rich artistic culture instigates their sorrowful frustrations of loss, a violent and tumultuous emotional state that leaves the speaker discontent. The brimming passion they exude for their city is consequently susceptible to curdling into emotional wounds if the object of their passion becomes threatened or marred. This leads to the speaker harboring harsh resentment towards the storm, personifying its damage as thievery to make the wounds and vitriol feel like a more personal slight.

            I confidently affirm my belief that many of our readings throughout this course offered evidence into the various ways violence can often exist in or become exacerbated through care. The intense emotions and convictions teeming within individuals have the capacity to be expressed in ways that may be harmful or detrimental to themselves or others. Roach affirms that no violence is executed without conviction, thus positing care is a core component of violent expression. Prospero disregards the safety of dozens for the sake of expressing his passionate pride and care for his daughter with spectacle. A speaker from Blood Dazzler is stuck dwelling with resentment over forces that challenged the culture and community he cares immensely for, far from a mindset free of discontent. I understand that this essay may have come across as cynical, that I believe caring is a deficit to human behavior. This could not be farther from the truth, however. I ultimately hope this serves as a dirge, reflecting on the bad, to contrast to a flourishing second line, the reward, as everyone looks around at all the people who exercise care so wonderfully in their daily lives. A lack of care, after all, would lead to widespread apathy throughout society. If no one possesses care then that negligent aid afforded for Katrina survivors, as seen in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, would be the status quo. No one in our society could be bothered to lend a hand to a struggling neighbor or tirelessly work to improve conditions for those in need because of natural disasters. Care is indeed crucial in combating the spread of violence through negligence, but it is not the antidote. I believe it is important to have passion and care towards many attributes of life. However, it is equally important to reflect and tend to this care so that one can elevate others through its expression as opposed to risking others through a more outwardly destructive expression of these feelings.

Throughout this course, I have had access to a wide range of tools and resources, all of which have helped me to develop my understanding, thinking and grow as a student. Reinforcement of learning and reviewing course material aids in enhancing comprehension and memory of topics and ideas. Repeated exposure to the same content can strengthen knowledge and increase the likelihood that it will be remembered. As I write this essay, it all makes sense because I learned a lot about violence and tropical storms throughout the semester, which helps to explain why it was so crucial to think critically, pay attention, and double-check all of the documents. This was actually the first time I had a professor emphasize thinking, or in other words, that you must actually do the work in order to succeed.

I was curious about the where, how, and who of fictitious beings that are half dead, half alive as I read Colson Whitehead’s Zone One.  So I looked into the origins of zombies and discovered that reanimated corpses are the basis for mythology from Haiti and Africa. These myths claim that zombies are simply humans who have been magically revived and are now in the control of a sorcerer or witch doctor. However, George A. Romero’s 1968 horror film “Night of the Living Dead” is mainly responsible for the way zombies are portrayed in modern culture as monsters that consume human flesh. This film introduced the zombie apocalypse, in which the dead rise from their graves and hunt down living creatures to eat. Since then, zombies have been a staple of horror fiction and have appeared frequently in films, television shows, and video games. The modern zombie is essentially a product of popular culture, despite the fact that its origins may be established in folklore and superstition. The idea of a relentless horde of undead creatures pursuing living humans can be both terrifying and exhilarating, which made me wonder why society idolizes and romanticizes these fictional characters, such as those from The Walking Dead or Vampire Diaries. Escapism, in a world that can often feel overwhelming and unpredictable, the zombie apocalypse represents a complete break from reality. Some people may find comfort in the notion of a world in which everything has crumbled and survival is the only objective. Social issues are another concern for some individuals; in some zombie stories, the living dead serve as a metaphor for problems with consumerism, conformity, and fear of the unknown. In order to remark on broader societal issues, authors and filmmakers often examine these themes through the lens of a zombie apocalypse.

We have explored the ideas of “violence” and “care” in a variety of ways throughout this course. I was unsure whether to agree with Saidiya Hartman’s claim that “care is the antidote to violence” or Davina Ward’s counterclaim that “violence can exist as care” after reading Zone One and understanding what zombies stand for. Based on the various course materials, some things are just very circumstantial. We have discussed the conflicts between violence and care in class by reading, analyzing images, and watching movies about natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy that all go back to course ideas like diaspora, memory, and forgetting. 

The story of a survivor of a zombie apocalypse is told in the book “Zone One” as he aids in the removal of infected “stragglers” or “skels” from lower Manhattan, which has been separated into different “zones” for reclamation purposes. The book does a fantastic job of demonstrating the severe trauma and long-lasting effects that catastrophic events and ongoing catastrophes cause. Mark Spitz, the main character, is a former office worker who has been given the responsibility of eliminating the last mass of zombies from the city. As Mark and his team navigate the various zones, they come across a variety of challenges and threats—both from the undead and other humans. Along the way, Mark reflects on his past and his relationships with his fellow survivors. Consumption, conformity, and the struggle for power in a post-apocalyptic society are just a few of the social and political concerns that Whitehead utilizes the zombie apocalypse as a metaphor for throughout the book. I’ve considered the zone between life and death that exists among zombies, which is similar to the zone between land and water that existed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina when the levees broke. One interviewee in the film “When the Levees Broke,” which was shown in class and was about the survivors and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said, “The aftermath to me is worse than the actual levees breaking.” There were also times during the evacuation process when it appeared as though the government had no interest in aiding the people who had been impacted by such violence. The premise behind Hartman’s statement that “care is the antidote to violence” is related to this. The New Orleans Morial Convention Center was recommended to a huge number of people who were seeking shelter from Hurricane Katrina, according to the documentary.  But because of the extreme overpopulation and the lack of food, water, and medical supplies, the situation became even worse. This is an additional illustration of how violence exists as care. 

We then looked at photos from Hurricane Sandy, and watching and viewing material like this is raw and sometimes really hard to look at. Our discussions regarding Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina frequently focused on the aftermath, including hearing people’s tales of survival and those they have lost. In the same way that Katrina survivors discussed the long-term physical, psychological, and PTSD impacts of their experience in When the Levees Broke, Zone One describes how trauma extends beyond “last night” stories and permeates a world that has seen tragedy. The recollections of the storm’s victims that the survivors have are comparable to zombie fiction — a life between the living and the dead. A zombie may still have the same physical composition as a person who wishes to continue living a human life, but they are no longer that person. Some storm survivors may have memories of their lost loved ones and be able to see them while also realizing that they are no longer alive. Death is what separates a person’s memory from them; those who survive hold onto those memories.

Additionally, the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy serves as a stark reminder of the devastating power of nature and the value of learning from the mistakes of the past. Millions of people’s lives were interrupted, the storm cost billions of dollars in damage, and many lives were lost. Many initiatives were made to strengthen communities after the storm in order to better prepare them for future storms. In this regard, Hurricane Sandy stands for the necessity of reflecting on the past in order to plan for the future. 

It was challenging to think through the tension created by both Hartman and Ward’s assertions. The ongoing discussion, revisiting earlier material and making connections to other works, and being able to hear other people’s ideas and interpretations have all been very beneficial to me. As a student, I am eager to identify new problems in life and learn as much as I can from them. I am grateful that the challenges I have faced in this class have allowed me to grow. 

Over the course of this semester, the exploration of  “violence as the performance of waste” (Joseph Roach) has become the backbone of most of my thinking throughout the course. Though now, having to consider this violence as care, I have found myself also relying on former Geneseo student, Davina Ward’s paper, where she proposes that violence can take on the form of care and vice versa. In her essay, Ward pushes back against Saidiya Hartman’s assertion “care is the antidote for violence”, where she argues that both violence and care “each serve as a justification for an action”. Thinking back to the course concepts revealed at the beginning of the semester, sacrifice, effigy, and expenditure will be involved heavily in my analysis here. Really early in the semester, an example was presented to the class of a picture of a bounce house called the “Tot-Tanic” an inflatable rental for kids parties. An effigy at its core, somehow its performance of violence –violent in the way it is discrediting the tragic deaths of the incident, or rather,  forgetting the severity of that event.– a community was brought together by an effigy, and its violent performance. So the morality of it all comes into question here; can a violent performance be considered an act of care if the end result brings people together? 

Looking to Superstorm, by Kathryn Miles, the audience is brought into Hurricane Sandy, the surreal depictions and tragic details of the storm’s impact, grant the reader a perspective to understand the violence of the storm. Focusing on the afterward, the audience is enlightened on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, with survivors struggling without power, Miles describes the torment these individuals had to face. She writes, “For many, the torment continued. Across Appalachia, residents struggled against freezing temperatures and no power. They risked asphyxiation by using camping stoves and gas ovens to keep warm. Nursing home workers swaddled elderly patients in blankets and sleeping bags. The snow continued to fall.” (Miles, 254). This quote depicts the violent circumstances these people had to endure. Continuing along in the afterward, Miles writes about Bellevue Hospital, where the patients had to stay in unsanitary conditions with limited food supply. One thing to take away from this part of the afterword is the way Dr. Ford took the initiative in bringing everyone together during that time of hopelessness. Miles writes, “The situation was now a crisis. She approached the corrections officers there. “I want to bring together all of the patients,” she said. “I think it’s the only way.” They agreed. Her staff began walking patients one by one. It was dark. The only lights they had were the flashlights they had brought on Sundaayy. Once they were all assembled, Ford called for her staff, too. She waited for them to settle in. And then she began to speak. She told them just what they were up against. She promised to take care of them. “We’re all in this together,” she said.” (Miles, 245). This quote shows how the circumstances brought people together to care for one another. What is demonstrated here reflects the concept of violence acting as care, or more in-depth, a violent state invoking care. 

After evaluating the correlation between violence and care, my final question pushes through: Does an act of violence initiate care? When considering examples of this, I think back to when I would get hurt and would need to be cared for in order to get better. After an injury is obtained from a violent act (purposeful or accidental) care is required to maintain stability and heal the injury. This draws on scholar Saidiya Hartman’s assertion that care is the antidote to violence. When care is necessary, it typically seems to follow a violent circumstance. From the video on Vimeo, In the Wake: A Salon in Honor of Christina Sharpe, Saidiya Hartman reads and provides a brief statement about Sharpe’s work before introducing her to speak. Hartman gives more on the “antidote to violence” concept during the time she speaks, bringing up the encountering of black suffering and stating “When looking at images of blacks suffering, I keep looking because that cannot be all there was to see or to say. I had to take care. Care is the antidote to violence.” (Timestamp: 8:29). This presents the idea that violence can lead to the action of care, although care is not always the guaranteed end result of violence. Care can also be a way to resist or combat violence, but it may not “erase” the violence before it, the memory still exists.

It is important to evaluate this correlation between violence and care, and not fully understanding that correlation is completely okay as well because it is a complex moral concept. Violence as care, because violence calls for care, is just one way to see that connection. It is worth examining how violence, despite not always appearing as care, can bring people together or spark the need for care. Through the examination of several course materials, I have learned how to grasp a better understanding of how violence and care interact with each other in many different settings.

Saidiya Hartman proposes the idea that care is the antidote to violence. I both agree and disagree with this statement. Care is the antidote to violence but only when it’s paired with the actions of the general population and the government. Care without the actions of the public and politicians results in unresolved issues that continue to build causing even deeper issues for the present and future. While the public has to care and take action, it’s the people in power that make true change. Without the actions of politicians change can not occur. The public can take action to force people in power to care and take action to make change more permanent, however, sometimes this doesn’t work and change doesn’t occur. In Joseph Roach’s Cities of the Dead Circum Atlantic Performance, the second chapter Echoes in the Bone explains the idea of memory and forgetting, connecting it to the past, present, and future. During class discussions, we discussed how the past “comes back to haunt the present.” An example of this is the history of mass shootings, specifically school shootings, in the United States. Mass shootings and gun violence have been a persistent issue in the United States for decades and the government has yet to take action to prevent more from continuing to happen. The result of their failure to take action despite the pleas from citizens across the country was the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that happened on May 24th, 2022 that resulted in 22 deaths and 18 injuries. Instead of taking action after one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States, politicians offered “thoughts and prayers.” This display of apathy for the victims and citizens of the United States resulted in more mass shootings as the year continued and into the following year of 2023. In the first three months of 2023, 131 mass shootings occurred. Memory plays a factor in care and how that could be the antidote to violence. As this problem continues to go unsolved and shootings become more and more frequent, much like politicians, the general public are beginning to forget how devastating these events truly are. This leads to apathy among people resulting in less care and less action.

Throughout the Hurricane Stories course, we learned about course concepts such as memory and forgetting, violence and its connection to waste and performance. These course concepts can be found in the texts we read and the media we consumed in class. Roach’s Cities of the Dead Circum Atlantic Performance introduced the ideas of memory, forgetting, and the idea that violence in the performance of waste. Beth McCoy’s Second Line and the Art of Witness: Steve Prince’s Katrina Suite explains how Steve Prince uses The Dirge and The Second Line in his art, its connection to Hurricane Katrina and how survivors were treated by law enforcement, and how they allow us to move forward without forgetting and dismissing the painful past. We read Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith, a collection of poems that describe Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. We watched When the Levees Broke, a documentary that allowed survivors the space to share their stories and the realities of the situation and put a spotlight on the parties that failed the city of New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.

The first step to determining if care can be the antidote to violence is to understand what violence is. Violence can be defined as behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. However, Roach defines violence as the performance of waste. He gives it this definition because in human societies violence is performative and always meant to be meaningful, in order to commit acts of violence “it must spend things”, and lastly because every act of violence must have an audience. During class we discussed what waste could mean as it relates to violence. We determined that waste could be a disregard of life. When believing yourself or a group of people to be better than others it allows for apathy toward other groups allowing for lives to be wasted because violence performed on them by yourself or others. We determined that forgetting the past results in violence and can be seen as waste in that context. The person or thing that violence was performed on can become waste itself. Wasting of resources was something else we determined could be seen as waste.

Just as there are many forms of violence, there are multiple forms of care. Understanding these forms of care is also important in determining if care is the antidote to violence. When researching on the different types of care I discovered two types of care, passive and active. While passive and active care are usually associated with chiropractic therapy, this essay will define passive and active care differently. The term passive care will be used in this essay to describe avoiding active harm while not taking action to remedy a situation. When caring passively, one cares, but not enough to take actions to make change for a cause or people that you care about. Active care can be defined as caring enough to take action for the betterment of a cause or group of people. To understand active care, action must also be defined. In this sense action can take many different forms. Protests, voting, calling representatives, and donations are all forms of action. These actions usually have consequences that lead to change. Passive care achieves nothing because no action is being taken to make change while active care can result in change however even when practicing active care change may not come.

Throughout the history of the United States active care has been practiced in hopes of change. On example of this was the March on Washington that happened on August 28, 1963. The March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech forced the president at the time, John F. Kennedy, to put support behind civil rights protestors. This event led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In addition to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in hiring, firing, or promotion. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices against people of color in the United States and aimed to desegregate schools. A more recent example were the protests in 2020 after the death of George Floyd. Along with the protests, when the presidential elections were held a record breaking number of Americans took to the polls to vote out Trump who introduced extremely harmful policies and took actions that did significant damage to many different communities in the United States. While the harm done by Trump and his party continues to affect us, the people of the United States demonstrated care for effected communities and used action to strip Trump of power.

Unfortunately, there are cases were both action and care from the public just aren’t enough. Just as there are instances where action from the public allowed for change, there were many instances where no action has been taken by the government even when it’s clear that the general population cares for these issues and takes actions to demonstrate care. When watching When the Levees Broke in class we witnessed as the government ignored protestors and Hurricane Katrina survivors as they asked for help. This resulted in even more people in New Orleans dying as they went without aid for days. In more recent events, more and more children are dying at the hands of gun violence, not for a lack of care and action by those in the community, but because of the lack of care and action of the United States government. While the general public cares very much about this issue and have taken many actions in an attempt to make the government care about what’s happening and take action, unfortunately, action has yet to be taken by the government to put an end to or at least reduce mass shootings and so they continue to happen.

There are some instances where only passive care is practiced and so action by the government is not taken. The fight against climate change is one of these instances. While there are some taking action to reduce the effects of climate change there just aren’t enough people willing to take action against companies and policies that continue to harm the environment. The lack of care by most people around the world has led to inaction and unresolved conflicts that continue to grow. This lack of care has already begun to effect us and will continue to effect us in the future as we continue to do nothing. As we continue down this path the past will come back to haunt the present and future resulting in more violence to life on Earth.

When considering the prompt, care is the antidote to violence, I find myself disagreeing. The answer to the prompt is no. While care is a part of the puzzle, action is the real antidote to violence. However, action can not exist without care and this action needed to be done by the people in power. While actions done by everyday people can convince people in power to care, it must be those put into positions of power that need to care and take action to resolve conflicts and create a better future for all. While politicians and the general population can care about a subject or issue, the issue with continue to exist and grow if action is not taken to irradicate the problem.

Saidiya Hartman’s assertion that “Care is the antidote to violence” is an optimistic view of the world. Prior to taking this course I may have, for the most part, agreed with her. After all, comfort or care following an act of violence is what is supposed to make people feel better.  After reading Davina Ward’s counter statement that “violence can exist as care,” and taking this Hurricane Stories course, I can recognize the tension that exists between the two words. Care is both the sickness and the cure in regard to violence. The two are most often thought of as opposites, but through my time in this class I have learned to distinguish the two not as mutually exclusive, but sometimes interconnected. 

At the beginning of the semester, as a class, we read part of Joseph Roach’s “Echoes in the Bone.” One of the main themes of our class has been the act of performance itself and also Roach’s claim that “violence is the performance of waste,” (41). Roach follows this idea with another claim “that violence is never senseless but always meaningful, because violence in human culture always serves, one way or the other, to make a point;” (41). I read this as Roach saying that there is always something behind an act of violence. A reason that others possibly cannot see. This brings me to one distinct difference between the concepts of violence and care, which is how they can be disguised. Throughout our readings this semester, I have learned that care can be disguised as violence. By this I mean that someone could show or perform an act of violence when they really mean to show that they care. With that being said, everything has an opposite: violence can also be disguised as care. In this case, someone will perform an act of violence under the guise of being caring. 

We see this performance in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare. The play follows Prospero, who is now seeking revenge on his brother, Antonio, after Antonio usurped his position as Duke of Milan and stole the crown. After the usurpation, Prospero and his daughter Miranda were left on a deserted island. At the beginning of the play, Prospero orchestrates a shipwreck. Among the survivors of the wreck is his brother Antonio and the Prince of Naples, Ferdinand. This violent act is hidden from his daughter Miranda, so Prospero does not appear aggressive in her eyes. Prospero acts as if he is genuinely caring towards his daughter then, in reality, decides to use her in his plan to regain power on the continent. He wishes to marry Miranda to the prince. Prospero leads Ferdinand into the scene and encourages Miranda to look at him, saying “The fringéd curtains of thine eyes advance, / And say what thou seest yond” (123). Prospero describes Ferdinand to his daughter as “gallant,” and “a goodly person” to which Miranda replies that he is “a thing devine.” When Ferdinand and Miranda meet they are immediately infatuated with one another, and Ferdinand proposes. Prospero then speaks to the audience, saying, “They are both in either’s powers; but this swift business / I must uneasy make lest too light winning” (126). Here Prospero is letting the audience know that his plan is happening too swiftly and he has to slow them down so it does not look orchestrated. I would consider this usage and view of his daughter as an object or pawn in his game as an act of violence against her and their relationship, however he disguises it as care for her as a father making sure his daughter is choosing the right man.  

Another tension our material from this class has led me to notice between these words is that care cannot always erase the violence that has occurred. I see this in Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke about the effect of hurricane Katrina on the city and people of New Orleans. These people went days without proper help and care from the government, of whom was supposed to provide it. There was rapid spread of disease, malnourishment, dehydration, and lack of general care before they got the help they needed. Spike Lee’s document shows the crushing reality the people of New Orleans faced in these conditions, pleading for days that they needed assistance, with no answer. Of course, they have been helped since, but in this case, they will think of the lack of care much more often than the care itself. The people of New Orleans are still, and will forever, be living with the aftermath of the violence of Katrina, both nature and human. 

Engaging with the tensions between care and violence has taught me different points of view towards ambiguous situations. By looking at these tensions and connecting them to materials we have read and watched in class I have a deepened understanding of human actions and reactions. I understand that violence and care can be opposites, but also exist within and next to each other.

One of the main course concepts thus far of Professor McCoy’s Hurricane Stories has been the concept of violence. Throughout this course we have seen many forms of violence and have at length discussed the author Joseph Roach’s definition of violence in a previous discussion post. To summarize here, Roach argues that there are three main aspects of violence: it is always purposeful, it must be excessive in order to demonstrate its purpose, and it must have an audience to receive its message. The scholar Saidiya Hartman proposed the idea that the antidote to such violence is care. There is more than one definition of the term care, however, I find the most relevant definition to be Oxford’s definition as to “feel concern or interest.” Past Geneseo graduate Davina Ward disagrees with the idea that care is the antidote to violence, stating that “Violence can exist as care.” This dichotomy of this discussion represents a gray area when it comes to the concept of violence which gives the term much more nuance that brings up an interesting discussion. Both points are in a way correct, yet neither alone correctly describes the full picture of both care and violence. Only together can these points make a cohesive description of the dichotomy of care and violence.

I find the usage of the term “antidote” to be striking and deserving of a discussion on its own as it applies to my own background in both medicine and biology. In the medical sense, the National Institute of Health defines an antidote as a drug class which “negate[s] the effect of a poison or toxin.” If Hartman was correct in discerning that care is the antidote to violence, we then can consider violence to be like a poison which falls in line with Roach’s definition of violence. Many animals that are poisonous, such as pufferfish for example, will use this poison to protect themselves from predators as eating such animals will lead to the absorption of the poison, causing the predator to ultimately perish. In this way, the poison is purposeful as it protects animals from being eaten by predators, it is excessive as the predators who attempt to eat the poisonous animals will perish, and it is demonstrative as predators will avoid eating this certain type of animal as a result of the poison. Thus, the concept of care in this case would act as antidote, counteracting the effects of the poison, or violence. For the most part, this logic is sound; however, there is one glaring flaw with this train of thought.

The term antidote brings with it a certain context that it negates all effects of a poison. This is misleading as even when an antidote is administered, it does not guarantee that the effects of the poison will be negated and one may still perish. When many think of the fields of biology and medicine, they tend to think in absolutes, however, this could not be further from the truth. There are many exceptions to most principles of biology as biology is a field of “should-bes.” One major example is Darwin’s idea of “survival of fittest” which can be more accurately described as “survival of what works.” This same logic can be applied to care as well. Even if there is care, it does not mean that this care will negate the effects of violence and in some cases, it may make the violence worse. A great example of this is demonstrated in the case of New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass as described in the documentary When the Levees Broke and the collection of poems Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith.

Eddie Compass was the police chief of the city of New Orleans during the events of Hurricane Katrina who on live television made unfound claims about the people taking refuge in the Superdome, even stating that “We had babies in there. Little babies getting raped.” This villainized the survivors of Katrina and led to more violence toward them. Although saying this was an act of violence, it came from a place of care. Compass had family members that were in the dome and he was worried for their safety during a tense time. Thus, Compass used his platform and these extreme claims in an attempt to gain more help for his struggling city and people. Unfortunately, these claims were unfounded and only seemed to worsen the situation. Chief Compass may have cared greatly, but this care would ultimately only spew more violence. I believe the word treatment would be far more accurate in describing the complexity of the term care. A good analogy would be that violence is like a cancer, infecting the body whilst care is like chemotherapy which may be effective for some but may also only cause harm to others.

After establishing that treatment is a far better description of care than antidote, we can now better tackle the dichotomy of care and violence. There are many examples in this course of how care helps to alleviate the symptoms of violence. One such example during the events of Hurricane Katrina was how the local communities of New Orleans worked together to help reduce the effects of the violence created by the storm. As portrayed in When the Levees Broke, many inhabitants of the lower ninth ward created makeshift rescue teams to help as many people as they possibly could. In this case, the care of the inhabitants for their community led to an alleviation of some of the violence created by the storm. We have also seen in this course how a lack of care during violence only creates more violence through both the compilation of works Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas and Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Throughout many sections of Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, it is made abundantly clear that many of the authors believe that a lack of care by the government ultimately led to the effects of Hurricane Katrina being much worse than they needed to be. One section of the collection that highlights this well is the section Snakes and Ladders: What Rose Up, What Fell Down During Hurricane Katrina by Rebecca Solnit. Solnit makes many claims about how authority in New Orleans lacked care saying how “the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had [not] built adequate levees” and that the police had “gone berserk.” Solnit highlights best this idea of a lack of care by authority leading to violence in the quote “Imagine that even though the levees failed and people were left behind, everyone in a position of power had responded with urgent empathy so that no one was left to die on a roof or in an attic.” It is evident from Solnit’s work that care can ultimately limit the effects of violence.

The Tempest expertly crafts a narrative on how violence can lead to even more violence when there is a lack of care through the plotline involving Sebastian and Antonio’s attempt to usurp King Alonso’s throne after their group is involved in a shipwreck. After experiencing the violence of a shipwreck, it is evident that none of the members of the group care about the violence that just took place as they make banter, wordplay, and jokes about the situation in which they have found themselves in. After the rest of their groups falls asleep, two members of the group, Sebastian and Antonio, who especially lack empathy attempt to use more violence to take advantage of the already present violence to better themselves off. In Act II scene I, the two discuss the possibility of usurping the throne, even mentioning how Antonio “did supplant [his] brother Prospero.” Both works expertly demonstrate how in the absence of care, violence will continue to grow like tumor a plaguing a body. This further supports the idea care is like a treatment for the cancer that can be violence.

There are far less examples in this course of violence being used as a form of care but they do exist. As mentioned early, Chief Compass committed an act of violence due to his care for his family and his city during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Another example is found in the book Zone One by Colson Whitehead which takes place in New York City during the events of a zombie apocalypse. Throughout the novel, the main character nicknamed Mark Spitz performs many acts of violence upon both types of zombies in the novel, killing them. However, the reason for these acts of violence is care for his fellow man as these “skels” and “stragglers” provide a threat to humanity. During the climax of the novel, one of Mark Spitz’s acquittances Fabio is in a situation in which “four blood-streaked hands snatched him into the vortex” and he is going to be torn apart by zombies without any way out. Instead of letting Fabio die brutally, Mark Spitz instead performs an act of violence, putting “three rounds into Fabio’s chest [terminating] the man’s screams.” Because of Spitz’s care for Fabio, he kills Fabio quickly rather than letting him die slowly. Although this is a very extreme example that is hard to apply to the real world, it demonstrates excellently how violence can be used as a form of care.

It may seem that this is a shut case that Ward is correct then. Violence can exist as a form of care and thus Haiyman was incorrect that care is the antidote to violence. However, just because Ward is correct that violence can exist as a form of care, that does not mean that care is not a treatment to violence. Rather violence as care can be used to treat other forms of violence. For example, if Spitz were to let Fabio die brutally and painfully, this would be another form of violence and a lack of care. However, when Spitz kills Fabio quickly, he is performing both care and violence which creates a better outcome. A medical analogy would be a doctor performing surgery on a patient to remove a tumor that is growing within them. In this case, violence would be used as a form of treatment; however, only due to the threat of further violence towards their patient. A doctor would not perform a surgery on a patient that did not need it but only those with whom a greater violence is already present.

The idea of care being used as a treatment of violence is one that I find especially relevant to my own life now as throughout the semester, I have been attempting to increase my own level of care, both in and out of class. One of my major struggles in this class has been my dominating approach to working in groups which can often be interpreted as an act of violence. This dominating approach is often one which is reinforced in the field of STEM as those who are most dominant tend to receive the greatest number of resources. However, this dominating approach conflicts with many of the core principles which I believe a future physician should have, most notably equity. Thus, I have been working to integrate the criticisms of Dr. McCoy, attempting to care more about the opinions of my peers and to decrease my violent approach of domination. I believe that I have ultimately improved myself because of this new found care which can be displayed in my group’s collaboration on Typhoon Tembin.

Although care can come in the form of violence, if I have learned anything in this class, it is that care is the ultimate treatment to violence. This has been demonstrated both through course content and my personal journey and struggles through this course. In this case, the approaches of both Hartman and Ward weave together to create a full picture on the true nature of the dichotomy of violence and care.

By Katlin McNeil

Violence is “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.” When typing violence into the search engine, one can find this standard definition on Google. Still, after taking an entire course dedicated to the word violence and the actions behind that word, this definition does not encompass what violence is behavioral. Violence is more than just the intention of harming someone, but how someone might do that. Violence can come from power, waste, and care. Davina Ward states, “Violence can exist as care.” Saidiya Hartman asserted, “Care is the antidote to violence.” Ward and Hartman take a stand on where the word violence has taken the most impact and harm towards others, but what if both are correct in their answers? Violence can be care while at the same time, care can help combat the violence at hand. It is all about the person’s intentions behind the words and actions they decided beforehand. This idea that violence can come from power, waste, and care shows prominently in the popular movie “I Care a Lot” directed by J Blakeson. The popular movie of 2020 shows how caring can be used as a violent act. The main character Maria Grayson is portrayed by actress Rosamund Pike who embarks on taking ‘care’ of elderly people, ultimately putting herself in charge of their financial holdings. Grayson becomes the sole caretaker of the elderly people who live within a home, starting a persona that she cares deeply about their needs and wants. Still, once she gets a hold of their financial holdings, she takes their money and lets them fend for themselves. This is what it means to use care as an act of violence. Violence can be used to manipulate the public into thinking one cares.

Violence is a vital course concept that we were instilled within our class right from the get-go, with it being one of the first essays we read where it stated, “Violence is the performance of waste.” Joseph Roach and his concepts have been the center of the class understanding from his article about Hurricane Katrina, Cities of the Dead Circum Atlantic Performace, “Echoes in the Bone.” When it comes to the concept of care being an act of violence, this shows throughout Roach’s idea of violence too. The portrayal of violence happens in many ways. However, care is something that many do not think about, but what if not only care can exist through violence but through existing through care and waste simultaneously? Hurricane Katrina was a horrible natural disaster that changed lives forever. Still, with the performance of care as an act of violence, Katrina’s victims and survivors had the worst outcomes due to the care given by the United States government. Roach uses the idea of the United States government using violence against the Katrina victims and survivors to show how they were depicted as waste just in the same context as the United States government uses care as an act of violence. The United States government knew about the levees that broke, causing severe flooding within New Orleans once Hurricane Katrina hit the city, resulting in many deaths rather than Hurricane Katrina. The government knew but did not intervene until it was too late. They tried to instill acts of care, but this resulted in more violence. The government relocated many of the Katrina survivors to get them out of New Orleans but ONLY bought a one-way ticket for victims, causing them to be stranded in an unknown place without people they knew with nothing, resulting in them being alone in isolation after losing their livelihoods in New Orleans. This caused them more harm than good. This act of ‘care’ resulted in violence towards those individuals not being able to go home to New Orleans, which was very sacred to them. This idea that New Orleans residents could not go back home and had to move was a tremendous event for them since most residents of New Orleans are known to be ‘born and raised’ within the city, never wanting to leave, which can be seen prominently throughout, the documentary series “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” by Spike Lee. Spike Lee interviews real people who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina, following them throughout their journeys of recovery from the storm. Lee gives the survivors and victims the power, allowing them to have a voice about what has been genuinely happening to them by the United States government in the aftermath of the Hurricane. 

The act of care through violence can be seen clearly throughout this course, but there are times when care can combat violence done to a community. The Hurricane Katrina survivors often find themselves being ‘saved’ not by the government but by their people and people representing their identities. Through many representations of art and craft, people have helped reclaim the voices of the Katrina survivors to help reclaim that idea of care being genuine instead of an act of violence. “Blood Dazzler” by Patricia Smith helps show this through her poems of raw emotions that many would have felt and been dealing with before, during, and after the hurricane. Of the many poems, Smith’s poem 34 showcases a side that is left undiscussed within horrific events, the elderly. “St. Bernard Parish, L.A., Sept. 7 (UPI)-Thirty-four bodies were found drowned in a nursing home where people did not evacuate. More than half the residents of St. Rita’s Nursing Home, 20 miles southeast from downtown New Orleans, died August 29 when floodwater from Hurricane Katrina reached the home’s roof” (Smith 50). This is one of the first times a forgotten group of individuals is remembered and memorized. Elders are often expenditures by society, being one of the first groups to be left alone to defend themselves. Smith helps highlight the individuals lost through this tragedy while showing their voices are heard. 

One idea lingering from this course is that one can carefully combat violence like the victims of Hurricane Katrina and other horrid natural and unnatural disasters. Violence causes a lasting effect on the individual state of being that makes them rewire their daily habits and needs, but there is a process to get through this: mourning. The behavior that has struck the most is the first and second lines of a funeral possession within New Orleans. The “first line” is where all members who knew that person walk along mourning the person they have lost on the way to the funeral, after which the funeral is considered ‘over.’ The “second line” begins with anyone being able to join in to celebrate the life of the person lost. As Nicole Young states in her article The New Orleans Funeral reminds us that grief is a burden that can be shared, “the term second line refers to the crowd of community members and mourners who follow the first line of the parade — the casket, family, and musicians. In New Orleans, that first line includes percussion alongside a brass band, with trumpeters, tubists, and trombonists like Agee. Funeral second lines are community events, with sometimes hundreds of people joining the procession….” The second line allows life to begin again through grief, paying tribute to the lost life. The idea of mourning, memorizing, and celebrating life after a tragedy done through violence can be combated by care itself, as the second line in New Orleans does. The city’s people did this to mourn, memorize, and celebrate the life lost after Hurrian Katrina went around the city, trying to rebuild it within the idea of a ‘second-line’ possession.  Memorization of the horrific events of Katrina can be captured below within this memorial that shows the water levels that once filled the city, causing the deaths of many individuals. 

This image shows the level markers in which Hurricane Katrina was—taken by the Washington Post.

Not only has the memorization of the people of Hurricane Katrina been in effect to try and combat the usage of violence throughout the whole disaster, but to try and bring care and comfort to the people still living. Through the play, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, the ending of the play captures this idea perfectly within the epilogue, “now my charms are all o’verthrown, and what strength I have’s mine own, which is most faint: now, ‘t is true,…in this bare island by your spell; but realize me from my bands with the help of your good hands…mercy itself, and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardon’d be, let your indulgence set me free” (Shakespeare 69). The epilogue captures the true emotions of mourning and grief, trying to get on with one’s life and close that section of one’s life. Nevertheless, this survivor is still guilty of being alive while the others are not around one. One feels guilty for living through this tragedy while they did not cause one to ask for the dead victims to release one , the survivor, from this turmoil of guilt. This is why memorizing, remembrance, and celebration of life are so pivotal. They help combat this violence one puts within oneself because one uses care to showcase that one also cares about the ones lost but not forgotten. 

No matter how much care can is inflicted through violence, the act of care can always combat the violence. The people within numbers have the strength to ease each other’s pain caused by others. This is why communities are so important because they help ensure that people are cared for even after violent acts are committed against them. The United States government used to care as an act of violence against the people of New Orleans and those affected by Hurricane Katrina by minimizing their trauma and connection to their city of New Orleans. No matter how much the government minimized or tried to minimize them, the people of New Orleans always found a way back to their community through memorization, grief, traditions, celebration, and rebuilding. Not acknowledging the ones lost during Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters worldwide would minimize the number of people who did not get to be a part of rebuilding their community. Not everyone returned to the ‘second line’ to celebrate the rebuilding of their city, dead and alive, due to the relocation of those left after the disaster and never made it back to New Orleans and known knowledge of the levees being unstable for a hurricane by the United States government kept from the people of New Orleans. Care, power, and waste are all used as an act of violence against the people of New Orleans, which can be seen today as having a last impact on the people there. However, no matter what the cost, a community like New Orleans will try and combat the care being the act of violence by the government by replacing it with community care themselves. People will always rebuild, but that trauma will also be embedded within them for future generations. 

Works Cited

Ambrose, Kevin. “New Orleans: Then and Now Photos, 16 Years after Katrina.” The Washington

Post, WP Company, 29 Aug. 2021,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/28/hurricane-katrina-orleans-rebuilt-

hotos/. 

MobileReference. The Tempest: By William Shakespeare. MobileReference.com, 2008. 

Roach, Joseph R. Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance. Columbia University Press,

1996. 

Smith, Patricia. Blood Dazzler: Poems. Coffee House Press, 2008.

“When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 21 Aug. 2006,

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783612/.

Young, Nicole. “The New Orleans Funeral Reminds Us That Grief Is a Burden That Can Be

Shared.” Vox, Vox, 21 Jan. 2022,

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22876551/mourning-grief-second-line-new-orleans-j

zz-funeral. 

Care is not the antidote of violence, rather care is the start of recognizing what we can do to prevent violence and alleviate the problems that stem from violence. I have learned that care, at times, is all we have to offer, but at others it’s an empty signal that does nothing more than perpurate violence. This very idea has changed how I view my own care and how it affects myself and other people when I consider my own actions. The idea of violence being considered care on the other hand is very dangerous. The mindset of violence being care could lead to a perpetual cycle of violence which is a far greater danger than the passivity of care being an antidote. 

Saidiya Hartman’s quote, “ Care is the antidote to violence”, in context is very interesting and powerful. By offering care to people who need it the most we can change their lives for the better such as those who are victims to the prison industrial complex. However if someone read this quote out of context or believed simple care could end all violence It would be a gross misinterpation. Care is a powerful thing in our everyday life, caring is what keeps people connected. We care about our family, we care about our friends, we care about strangers, and we even care about more abstract things like laws and morals. Yet, our level of care can vary greatly. Let us compare a climate activist and a regular person who is aware of their plastic intake. Both care about the environment, but who makes more change? An active participant or a passive one? 

This is why care is not strictly the antidote to violence. Rather care is the foundation of wanting to prevent violence while action is the structure that actually does something about violence and its outcomes. This very idea has been very challenging for myself, yet it’s been one of the most important lessons I’ve learned so far. 

One example I find very important to discuss this idea is through president Bush’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina as well as my own initial reaction. Hurricane Katrina was massively devastating for the city of New Orleans. Over a thousand people died, with a million people being displaced. Homes were washed away, with people’s history also being a victim to the storm. What was especially tragic about Hurricane Katrina, which was greatly highlighted by Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke, is that a lot of this suffering and waste could’ve been prevented before AND after the storm.  

Whether that be the US Army Corps of Engineers poorly constructed levees that barely held up against the power of Katrina, the lack of resources for the elderly, people with disabilities, or the people who simply didn’t have the financial means or transportation to evacuate New Orleans. Or afterwards when we see insurance companies deny victims of the storm due to fine print and people waiting months for a trailer from FEMA.      

One person who got a lot of criticism, rightfully so, was the then president, George W. Bush. George Bush was not the greatest president nor the greatest person, especially with his choice to see New Orleans from within Air Force One. In Patrica Smith’s poetry book, Blood Dazzler, she follows Hurricane Katrina’s path over New Orleans including George W. Bush’s response, “Stifle the stinking, shut down the cameras, wave Dubya from the sky”(Blood Dazzler, Pg. 27),showing  that he was completely separated from those stuck in ninety degree heat and in multiple feet of water.

 People argued that Bush did not care about these people, the very people he was supposed to serve as president. It’s quite hard to argue with these people because George Bush’s actions spoke for himself. For all we know, Bush could have been torn to shreds over the suffering and destruction that Katrina brought upon New Orleans but will people remember him for that? The memory of Bush will be a negative one for the people of New Orleans, he will be remembered as someone who ignored their suffering because of his lack of action. George Bush was the most powerful man in the United States, the head of our government, which was why so many people were frustrated and angry at him because he had direct authority to make a systemic change that would help the people impacted by the violence of Katrina and alleviate their suffering. 

This is an example of why care isn’t a direct antidote to violence as well as a learning moment for myself within this course. Being angry towards people who caused or exacerbated the violence we see in New Orleans is a valid response but what does it do? I can be as mad as I want to be towards a certain politician, an insurance company, or an organization but what is productive about that? Or rather how can I channel this anger into something productive. Anger can be just as unhelpful as passive caring. 

To be clear, Anger can be an effective form of care. Much like care, anger is only helpful when it is constructive. Anger can be used as a form of passion that drives someone to make change. But, anger can also be destructive, both within ourselves or towards others. 

This concept and feeling also came up in a group project about Cyclone Idai, a tropical storm that greatly impacted southeastern Africa. When the storm hit people were very concerned about the well being of the peoples of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. People donated, engaged in conversation over the conditions that people are living through but then the conservation stopped and so did the care.

The same situation was also highlighted when we covered Hurricane Maria in class, which impacted the island commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The behavior of then president, Donald Trump, is a funhouse reflection of Bush’s reaction towards Katrina. President Bush and Trump are both guilty of greatly dropping the ball during their respective Hurricanes. Bush was too passive in his response to Katrina, viewing the destruction from Air Force One. Trump on the other hand made a joke of this grave situation by tossing paper towels to the people of Puerto Rico who saw their communities destroyed and left without electricity for almost a year and water for 6 months. 

 This revelation challenged my thinking, altering my mindset. Angrily doing nothing is not helpful, even though our actions do not hold the same weight as world leaders, apathy is dangerous. But this leads me to the question of then what? What can we do? What could I do? Violence is something we can not escape, we have been afflicted by violence for so long that it has shaped the world we live in. 

This is why I think people will gear towards Davina Ward’s quote, “violence can exist as care” , and see violence as a tool. Although this is easy to do, this is quite dangerous. Historically we have seen violence used as a tool during the Reign of Terror. In the middle of the French Revolution, more radical revolutionaries sought to rid society of ‘counter revolutionaries’ which saw innocent people be executed when clashes against the beliefs of the revolution which is liberty, equality, and brotherhood. No matter what, we must try and prevent heading towards violence to prevent it because that will lead to a never ending cycle of violence and destruction. 

Violence being used as a tool can be seen in Colson Whitehead’s post-apocalyptic novel, Zone One,  which sees the world ravaged by a pandemic that turns the infected into the living dead. All is not lost, humanity hangs on by a thread, fighting back against the dead and trying to rebuild the world. The Novel is focused around Mark Spitz and his team clearing ‘Zone One’ which is located in lower Manhattan.

Mark Spitz and his team are ‘Sweepers’, not quite soldiers but rather mercenaries, directed to kill the remaining undead in Zone One so that New York City can be habitable once again. Mark Spitz and his team are on a mission of care with their main tool being violence.  The bulk of the undead were already killed by soldiers and this was seen as a great thing, a necessary thing, so humanity can rebuild. But even though these soldiers were fighting the Undead, it still affected these soldiers, “They knew they were being fundamentally altered, in their very cells, inducted into a different class of trauma than the rest of the survivors.”(Pg. 95), and for this very reason care can not exist as violence.

The course concept of memory and forgetting has been a recurrent topic in our readings, such as in the case of Mike Spitz. The Novel may take place through a long weekend, Friday to Sunday, we are filled into what happened to humanity through Mike Spitz’s memory. Whitehead’s use of memory helps flesh out this ravaged world but it also helps the reader tap into the mindset of the survivors. 

All of the survivors are afflicted with PASD, the post-apocalyptic variant of post traumatic stress disorder, “Everyone suffered from PASD. Herkimer put it at seventy-five percent of the surviving population, with the other twenty-five under the sway of preexisting mental conditions”(pg. 67), which makes sense due to their situation. Much like the victims of a natural disaster, war, or a pandemic, these people have had everything stripped away from them and forced into a period of high stress, especially when you consider that many of these people saw their loved ones turn into cannibalistic monsters. 

The violence, the act of sweeping, that Mike Spitz and his team engage in is seen as care. a necessary action because they’re making Manhattan liveable again yet it’s at a cost. Not only are the sweepers and soldiers putting themselves in harm’s way but they are traumatized to such an extent that ‘the Forbidden Thought’ is something the provisional government views as a threat, “Killing yourself in the age of the American Phoenix was a rebuke to its principles”(Pg. 251), because the weight of the violence is too much for survivors, especially those in the thick of retaking back the world from the undead who were once family, friends, and strangers. 

The parallels to Sweepers and soldiers of Zone One to real world combatants and veterans can also be made. Often these people enlist to make a difference, to protect one’s country, to serve in good faith, and utilize their care. Yet their good intentions are used against them and these people end up seeing and committing terrible acts of violence that stick with them for the rest of their lives. Sadly their sacrifice and care does not end violence, more so their care is seen as a justification for their violent acts.  

Overall, Hartman’s and Ward’s quotes sharply contrast one another. Hartman views care as a triumph of force over violence while on the other side of the spectrum, Ward see’s violence as a tool that can be wielded as a force of care. I see where these two writers are coming from. But I can not subscribe to their black and white view on violence and care due to what we’ve learned thus far in class because each situation is different. 

Although I view the gray path of active caring as the more successful path of understanding violence and the problems that stem from it and working towards combating it, this has also challenged me in my own way of thinking. Often people, myself included, enjoy things that are black and white such as good and bad. Situations and ideas that are not complicated, situations and ideas that have a clear answer. The gray path is uncomfortable and leaves a lot up to interpretation. But what I’ve learned from our experience in class is that exact discomfort fosters growth and understanding. 

One important thing that Dr. McCoy said to me that they learned from their Tai chi teacher which relates to my understanding of care is the idea of, “practice makes permanent”, because there will never be a perfect answer. However,  it’s through my own input and dedication that I can make change. I have learned that I have the power to use my care and go out and find these answers by discussing differing interpretations. We as people do not yield the same power as world leaders, government organizations, or fictional protagonists to prevent violence but we have strength with all of us. We must be active participants in our care to be able to alleviate the preventable violence and suffering that surrounds us and make a change. If we can recognize that violence yet choose not to do anything about it we are also to blame for the perpetuation of that violence.