Author: James Wu

This OpenLab site, specifically this “Posts” section will be the main space for the online course.

We will focus our writing on learning how to write more effectively online.

For participation and “attendance” please post at least 2 comments/new posts per week.

You can respond to any of the previous posts, or the readings we are referring to, or questions about the topics.

In the near future, I will give information about the next longer assignment, the research review of Hannah-Jones and Wilentz and one other article or source of your choosing.

If you are in touch with any of the other students, please check to see that they are onboard here.

Zoom meeting 9am, today, Thursday the 19th

Please go to:

https://bmcc-cuny.zoom.us/j/313162027

and navigate.  I have tried to make this open without password.  You may need to join Zoom bmcc with your bmcc email address.  If it does’t work, please read this blog posting site as we will do most of our writing on this blog.

We will try to do another Zoom meeting next Tuesday at 9am.

You will also continue to write the papers, which I will accept by email.

The final exam, in May will be taken on Blackboard.  I have not set that up yet, but it will be available by the,

 

Historical context of Hannah-Jones and Wilentz.

The larger historical picture.

We can see 3 periods of American history in the context of racism.

  1.  The 1776 period, the  1st founding.  Here, the founders of the USA, breaking away from the English monarchy, asserted their rights to be free of unjust rule.  The idea of “human rights” was coming to the fore for the first time in modern history.  This is the 1740-1750 period Wilentz mentions.  We can understand this as the move away from feudal peasant / lord power relations to the “idea” of rational, responsible human beings with rights.  The problem of course is the US founders, in declaring independence, did not extend “all men are created equal” to the enslaved population. We rightly call them out on their hypocrisy, as did people at the time.
  2. The 1865 period, after the civil war.  This was the end of the bloodiest conflict in US history, with 600,000 dead.  Only as a result of this war, did the US achieve its “2nd founding,” or 2nd beginning. Here we have the abolition of slavery in the 13th amendment (1865) and the “Rights of Citizenship” in the 14th amendment (1868), which were hotly contested and barely passed.  https://www.fortheteachers.org/File%20Cabinet/United%20States%20Constitution%20Outline.pdf    This 2nd beginning can also include the Reconstruction period, in which the Union enforced a biracial government on the southern states.  https://www.c-span.org/video/?404528-1/150th-anniversary-reconstruction   Unfortunately, this was not able to be maintained, as the southern states refused to allow equality to African Americans.  This is the period which saw the beginnings of groups like the KKK.  At first, the newly created US Justice Department enforced legal rights for African Americans.  By 1877, however, end of Reconstruction period, Jim Crow, legal discrimination, lynching, and outright white supremacy was the law of the land.
  3. The modern civil rights period.  Civil rights act of 1968.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968  This is the third attempt to create the US as a democracy with equal rights.  It’s possible that this era ends with the Presidency of Barack Obama and now with the presidency of D. Trump, we are seeing another attempt to justify racism.  Once again, the question is, do we make history, or are we the victims of some kind of dread fate and can do nothing about it?

On Wilentz.

What do you think about Wilentz’s concept of “relentless unforeseen,”  that we do not know what our actions will lead to, and that throughout the 1776 period and the 1865 period, people white and black did not know that slavery would be abolished.  Yet it was.

Question:  do we have the power as human beings to make history, or does it just happen to us enforced by fate?

Hannah-Jones also believes that human beings make history.  One of her main points is that the work and deeds that the African American people, the effort to demand abolition of slavery and then equal rights, is an example of people acting in history to improve their lives and to create and contribute to the concept of freedom as something that human beings can achieve.  Nevertheless, they have been blocked by oppressive, reactionary forces.  But Hannah-Jones point is that people did this.

Live on blog now

Good morning.

As I understand things, we are having this class now online.  So starting Thursday, I would like to have one reflection per class day, Tues and Thursday.  You can get it in by the afternoon, that is fine.  I will point to readings and start discussion points but feel free to reflect on the readings yourself or other topics.

For now, we should take the opportunity to sharpen our writing powers for this “genre” or format, the blog post, online writing, etc.

Please scroll down and navigate this blog and read some of your classmates’ comments.  Ask yourself, what makes an effective blog post?  A very important aspect, is the visual, graphic display on the web.  Make sure to skip a space to create a visual step to help guide a reader. Remember, an effective communication is one that gets its message across.

Note also that shorter sentences tend to be more effective.  So practice writing shorter sentences.

 

Comments on Wilentz (first 19 paragraphs). Write a reflection, 400-600 words, on Wilentz in relation to Hannah-Jones.

  1. Was abolition of slavery inevitable according to Wilentz?  “Inevitable”–means it had to happen and could not have not happened.   What does he mean by “relentless unforeseen?”  Does this agree or disagree with Hannah-Jones?   When we look back at history, how do we see the events vs. how did the people at the time experience them?
  2. One main difference between Wilentz and Hannah-Jones is that Wilentz does not tell the story of the role of the African-American in liberation from enlsavement.  On the other hand. Hannah-Jones’ thesis is that the African-American contribution to abolition of slavery and the continued struggle for equality for all is of the utmost importance in American history.
  3. Wilentz’s main point is that is was not known at the time that slavery would be abolished.  There was a great struggle between proslavery and antislavery world views among the white population.
  4. In paragraph 3, Wilentz references the 1740-1750s “explosive consciousness of man’s freedom to shape the world in accordance with his own will and reason.”  In general, this refers to the “enlightenment.”  Hannah-Jones will be quick to point out that this “universal freedom” was not extended to the enslaved, and slavery did exist at that time.  Wilentz is arguing that the moral rejection of slavery was advanced by “scrutinizing inequality, personal sovereignty, national sovereignty and servititue of every kind” (paragraph 4).
  5. In paragraph 5, he says that though slavery had always existed, “the struggle to abolish it came abruptly.”  He sees the American Revolution as part of this process, that there was an anti-slavery movement in the Declaration of Independence, but it was violently opposed by the proslavery forces that existed based on feudal and ancient world view of conquest of peoples and social hierarchy.
  6. Write your own reflection (400-600words) on the first 19 paragraphs of Wilentz.  Compare it to Hannah-Jones.  Post it by Monday 1pm.
  7. Note: I will make comments on your previous Hannah-Jones posts by Monday 1pm.

Yes, post your reflections here.

Post your reflections on Hannah-Jones, Magness, Lindsay, now.  You can use “Leave comment here.”  By Tuesday morning, review the other students’ posts and make a comment or two.  Please be respectful and logical.

The next reading is the Wilentz, “American Slavery and the Relentless Unforeseen.”

This is a long piece and will take you some time to read it.  I would have a notebook at my side and as I read take a few notes to set up for my comment. Even if you don’t understand every word of the article, read through it and capture the main sequence of ideas, argument, narration etc.

I will have some comments on Wilentz by Friday 1pm.

Post your reflection on Wilentz by Tuesday or Thursday at the latest

What is his concept of “Relentless Unforeseen?”  How is that a critique of Hannah Jones or modification of her thesis?

Research the latest New York Times statement on 1619 Project.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/magazine/an-update-to-the-1619-project.html

How would you state Hannah-Jones’s thesis?  Write a one or 2 paragraph comment.  Save it on a separate file so you can use it in your next paper, which we will discuss soon.  To put it briefly, you will be writing a full review of Hannah-Jones and Wilentz and one or two other articles that you select.

 

Texts. Please read all of these, especially the Wilentz.

Hannah-Jones.  Scroll and click to her essay, the intro to the whole issue.

https://pulitzercenter.org/file/fullissueofthe1619projectpdf

Magness, “Fact Checking the 1619 Project and its Critics.”

https://www.aier.org/article/fact-checking-the-1619-project-and-its-critics/

Lindsay, “After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery?”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2019/08/30/after-all-didnt-america-invent-slavery/#4adcf7b57ef6

Wilentz, “American Slavery and the Relentless Unforeseen.”

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/11/19/american-slavery-and-the-relentless-unforeseen/