32)#102-14. Group Blue Proudly Presents... and Thanks!

This Monday was very special for me because it was my birthday =) Coincidentally, I had my seminar presentation on the very same day. Sevda, Nazlı and I, the ‘fierce’ members of group blue, were all dressed in blue from head to toe. Unfortunately, nobody noticed :/

Anyways, we went to our classroom FASS1081 to prepare everything beforehand. After Nazlı who introduced our presentation, Sevda started it off by explaining the features of black language. Following her, I explained the family identity of the Breedloves. I tried to analyze the family as a whole and its members as individuals. I also used a chart to explain the latter. I must thank Nazlı and Sevda for improving my computer skills. It took some time for me to accomplish that;)

Finally, it was Nazlı’s turn to talk about the Civil Rights Movement. On a closing note, we played “Black Magic Woman” by Fleetwood Mac. While we were preparing the group work of our presentation on Saturday, the coffee at Cafe Crown must have inspired us because that is when we got this idea to use a blues song at the end of our presentation.

Overall, how did Group Blue’s presentation go? I think it went pretty well. I enjoyed explaining the material to my fellow classmates. The only thing that bothered me was no matter how much I tried to interact with the audience, I was not able to succeed. That was a bummer :( My group members suffered from the same problem. We tried to explain more and give hints about the questions we posed, but we had no luck.. I do not know what we could have done more really.

The highlight of the presentation was actually what happened afterwards. When Sonja asked the class to sing “Happy Birthday” for me, I was really touched. I went bright red. I was sooooooo happy. Yes, even though I’m supposedly an adult, I still feel like a kid on days like this. I want to thank everyone, first and foremost Sonja and then my classmates, for doing such a nice thing. I’ll always cherish that moment :)

Ahh, I’ve written a lot today. You’re free to harass me about the length of this post if you like ;)
Peace.

28)#102-10. What Was Right Back Then?? [A Question of Morality]

Now that spring break is over*sobs*, I can get back to blogging. This entry is for week 10.

During our off-week, I read the ‘winter’ and ‘spring’ sections and I noticed a pattern. Why must all adult characters have some kind of perversion?!? Cholly impregnates his daughter; Soaphead Church is a pedophile; Mr. Henry sexually assaults Claudia and spends time with prostitutes... this list can go on. I must ask, “Was it that bad?!?” I mean those times was not the best of times, but why is every character morally corrupt? It really bothered me when I read the book.

Like I mentioned in my previous entry, the self-hatred of African-Americans (because of internalization of the white perception etc.) also bothered me. In class, we talked a lot about this issue and as I’d like to call upon ‘the doll quote’ which effectively illustrates the topic at hand. As Simge already knows, I do not like dolls(if you are that curious why I don’t like them, see her entry 'The Bluest Eye' and no, I did not get paid to advertise her blog, it is just because I want to :P).

I’ll blog about week 11 later…

If anyone would like to harass me-jk- or just randomly say hello, please do so. I like comments very much though I seem to have a limited audience :’(

'I Hate How Much I Love You' by shewatchedthesky under CC Attribuition-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

24)#102-6. This Party Stinks + SAVE US!!!

My weekly update:

On Monday, we were assigned to read “A Party Down at the Square” by Ralph Ellison. Though the discussion wasn’t very smooth, I managed to pick up a few important points. The one that struck me the most was the dehumanization of the African American man. The way the author described him had irked me before, but when it was pointed out that it was intended to be that way, I was bewildered. The narrator thought of a barbecued hog when he saw that man on fire! How careless can you be??? I need to admit though. He brilliantly got his message across by being careless. You can definitely understand how African American people were treated at the time if you read “A Party Down at the Square.” That’s why it was really hard for me to digest what I read…

Wednesday’s class was probably the most beneficial yet. As if Sonja knew my questions about the APA format all along, I received a lot of answers that will come in handy while I’ll be writing my research paper. In addition, we, group blue, are to make a presentation next week and with the midterms and the TLL paper, all I can say is: GOD, SAVE US!