This semester has been really fun and we have learned so much from the different books that we have read.  I found it extremely helpful when we had full on class discussions where everyone just goes back and forth saying what they think.  It helps you see the different aspects of the book that you yourself might not have been thinking.  I also found the blogs to be very helpful and I enjoyed blogging about the books we were reading.  For the 2nd semester I would like to continue to use the blogs for new assignments but to also keep using them for book discussions.  This 1st semester has been a great learning experience and I hope that the 2nd one is too.  I would also like to take this time to inform you that wasserman is in fact the man.

I found Borat to be a very funny movie but I can see why many people are taking offense from it.  The real citizens of Kazakhstan find the movie very disrespectful but the film is making fun of their own country.  I would find it hard to find a movie funny if it made my country look stupid, it would really annoy me.  I know i found the movie to be hilarious but others might have found it cruel, there were many jokes in the movie that I could see causing problems.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/mason/mason.html

Isaac Mason:

 Accordingly, when between five and six years of age, I was assigned to the duties of housework, to wait on my mistress and to run errands. When she went out driving I had to accompany her in the capacity of a page, to open the gates and to take down guard fences for her to drive through. That I might be found at night as well as by day my sleeping apartment was in her chamber on a truckbed, which was during the day time snugly concealed under her bedstead and drawn out at night for the reposing place of Isaac’s weary body while he dreamed of days yet to come. I remained in this distinguished position until I was about fifteen years old, when a change in common with all slave life had to he made either for the better or for the worse.

I found it very shocking that this man was put to work at the age of 5, he did little things but he was still working, still being a servant.  Its horrible to think that at such a young age, these people were already being put through hardships.

  My father, as I said before, was a free man and had the privilege of purchasing my mother and my sister, who was then about a year old, for $600. My mother at this time was in very ill health, and it was thought by many she could not live very long. My father not being able to pay the amount asked, had to find a sufficient security before he could obtain a bill of sale. He was fortunate enough to find that assistance in the person of Dr. Hyde, with whom I was soon to become personally acquainted. The remainder of the slaves each received a note from the hands of Mr. H. Wallace, and were directed by him to carry it to a certain person named by him, which act showed that each slave had been previously disposed of. Some were sold and some were hired out for a certain time to pay debts due by the estate.

I was very surprised to read that Isaac’s father bought his mother and sister’s freedom.  I didn’t know that a freed slave could do that, it shocking but also very releaving to know that they family could stay together.

Malachai also had this to say

http://blockhead.learnerblogs.org/

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=5861886&nav=4QcS 

At a company, blacks employees were being harassed and were given racist remarks.  The black employees went to court and won the case because such acts were against company policy.  The workers that had harassed the black employees were fired for the misconduct of the company rules.  The harassed employees are to recieve $250,000 each for compensation for what occurred.  I thought it was horrible that such acts were still occurring in our nation.  I’m glad the the workers won the case and that the other workers were fired for what they did.

The life of slaves was among the hardest and most brutal during this era of time.  Blacks were taken from their homes and shipped across the ocean to be sold as property and then they would work for the rest of their lives.  They worked all the time, everyday of the week and were in very poor conditions with little food, clothing, and essentials.  They were rarely giving breaks and were even considered lazy by theirs masters if they didn’t work fast enough.  Their families were split apart and their dreams and pride were shattered, the life of a slave was torture.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2695729

The link above talks about black children who were denied to go to certain schools because of their race.  The school distrect wouldn not allow the children to attend and I find it horrible, that such acts could still exist today.  Its a stupid conflict that shouldn’t even be taking place, there isn’t a place for such actions in our society.  The courts ruled with the parents and aloud the children to attend the schools despite their race.  The people interviewed in this article found it essential for diversty in the schools for the children to learn to interact in the real world.