Reaction to Moody

Anne Moody's text was an intense and powerful piece of text that conveyed her struggle as an African American in a white world. One of the most vivd image she created was that of the time her and her fellow negroes were left in the paddy wagon in 100 degree weather with the heat on and the doors locked. The thought of that in my mind was utterly disturbing. Picturing those people with sweat pouring down thier bodies while fear overcame thier minds. The inhumanity put forth by the policeman not only to do such a thing, but also to smile and walk away from the van when he saw how badly tortured they were. Obviously, the white policeman of that time could do whatever, whenever they wanted to the black people. They didn't enforce the law, they broke the law. In fact, there was no set 'law' they followed. They treated the blacks however they felt like they wanted to depending on the mood they were in that day.

Moody also makes an incredible connection to the treatment of the blacks and a concentration camp. I never thought to look at it through this lense, but yet it makes perfect sense. Both the Jews and the blacks were the minority group, oppressed by the majority, executed/beaten/tortured simply because of thier societal classification, segregated, isolated from thier oppressors, and lived in fear, scared that it might be thier last day. This connection is profound. What kind of people are we? We just let this ridiculous shit happen!

Reaction to Bukowski

I want to dedicate this blog to Bukowski's Notes of a Dirty Old Man, but I do want to shed some insight on something else that caught my attention. Even though I read the text days ago, I still can't stop thinking about the part that said how all the employees of the one establishment all took off work on Mondays to take LSD. I can't imagine shutting down a bar/restaurant to trip on acid!! What kind of sign do you put outside on your window, 'closed due to acid testing'? I guess I didn't realize how pertinent drug use really was in the 60's!

Now to my original focus; Bukowski. Of all the reading, this one was my favorite. I didn't realize at first that the women that hung around the store were prostitutes, let alone African American prostitutes. I didn't know that prostituition was a part of the negro population in the sixties. Was this a common practice?? Were there a lot of prostitutes?? Were they all black?? If they were black and Hank was white, then why did Hank treat them so good. Obviously, there were some non-racists back then that didn't judge you by your skin color. It almost seems to me that Hank loved Elsie, and felt some sort of friendship for the other women.

Also, I found it interesting how the author portrayed the tension between the blacks and the italians, in fact so much so that the Elsie murdered him. And yet the reaction to the murder is quite calm and is delievered in a nonchalant, 'it figures', kind of fashion. I was appalled at how unreactive Hank was, it appeared that he was an empty man despite his lame tear he shed.

All in all, the piece was interesting due to its story, its lazy grammar and its choice to reverse the roles of the races. The blacks killed the Italians, the italians bossed the whites around, and the white man was submissive and fell in love with a black woman......what a strange story.

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