The Civil Rights Movement

a) When did the civil rights movement begin?

Ans: Approximately 1950

b) What was the civil rights movement about?

Ans: A worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring

c) State some of the significant incidents that took place in the civil rights movements (choose 2-3 incidents and state them briefly not in great details)

Ans:

· November 22, 1991: Civil Rights Act of 1991 signed by President Bush.

· April 29, 1992: Race riots occur after police who beat Rodney King are acquitted.

d) Which American President supported the civil rights movement?

Ans: President John F. Kennedy

e) What was the outcome of this movement?

Ans: As a result to the civil rights movement African - Americans are now as equal as whites.

In what way is the civil rights movement related to the novel?

Ans: Lee wrote the novel during the beginning of the Civil Rights era. Lee's book was published in 1960 - a time of tumultuous events and racial strife as the struggle in the Civil Rights movement grew violent and spread into cities across the nation, and into the American consciousness on TV screens and the nightly news.

Montgomery Bus Boycott and Scottsboro trials

a) State the specifics of each trial and why they were significant.

Ans: Montgomery Bus Boycott - Started in 1955, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system

Scottsboro trials - nine black teenaged boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931

b) How is the Scottsboro trials related to the trial in the novel?

c) In what way are these trials similar?

Ans for both b and c:

The Scottsboro Trials	Tom Robinson's Trial
Took place in the 1930s	Occurs in the 1930s
Took place in northern Alabama	Takes place in southern Alabama
Began with a charge of rape made by white women against African American men The poor white status of the accusers was a critical issue.	Begins with a charge of rape made by a white woman against an African American man
A central figure was a heroic judge, a member of the Alabama Bar who overturned a guilty jury verdict against African American men.	The poor white status of Mayella is a critical issue.
This judge went against public sentiment in trying to protect the rights of the African American defendants.	A central figure is Atticus, lawyer, legislator and member of the Alabama Bar, who defends an African American man.
The first juries failed to include any African Americans, a situation which caused the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the guilty verdict.	Atticus arouses anger in the communtiy in trying to defend Tom Robinson.
The jury ignored evidence, for example, that the women suffered no injuries.	The verdict is rendered by a jury of poor white residents of Old Sarum.
Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicated the trial.	The jury ignores evidence, for example, that Tom has a useless left arm.
	Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicate the trial of Tom Robinson.

Trials of a true Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman

a) What were the rules of etiquette for Southern gentlemen and ladies?

Ans: Girls were not allowed to wear pants, they were also not allowed to talk to non-white people. Girls were the main victims of the rules, most of the rules were only applicable for girls.

b) What did southern ladies do to pass their time (hobbies, etc)?

Ans: They like to read.

c) Pictures of Southern ladies and gentlemen

d) Identify characters in the novel that fit the mould of true southern belles and gentlemen and those who don’t? Explain why they fit the mould and why they don’t

Ans: Miss Maudie: Fits the mould of a true southern belle as she is kind and magnanimous in the sense that she bakes cakes for neighbours. Bob Ewell: Does not fit the mould of a true southern gentlemen as he is rude, has no manners nor self hygiene and shows no respect for people

Harper Lee

a) About the author

Ans: Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee Harper is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)—her one and only novel. The youngest of four children, she grew up as a tomboy in a small town. Her father was a lawyer, a member of the Alabama state legislature, and also owned part of the local newspaper. For most of Lee’s life, her mother suffered from mental illness, rarely leaving the house. It is believed that she may have had bipolar disorder.

b) Biodata

Ans: Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Harper Lee grew up in the small southwestern Alabama town of Monroeville. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-38). As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and she enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote, who provided the basis of the character of Dill in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

c) Novels written by her

Ans: To kill a mockingbird

d) Awards received

Ans: 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird

e) Why was TKAM significant novel to her?

Ans: Her first and only book she published.

Slavery

Slavery

1. a) When and how did slavery begin in the southern state?

Ans: Slavery began in Virginia in 1619. Slavery began when the first English colony in North America, Virginia, first imported Africans in 1619, a practice established in the Spanish colonies as early as the 1560s.

1. b) Which country were the slaves brought from?

Ans: West and central Africa.

1. c) Who traditionally bought and owned the slaves?

Ans: The Dutch bought and owned them in 1619.

1. d) Were there laws/rules that the slaves had to abide by? If yes what were they?

Ans: They could not gather in-groups of 4 or more because their owners thought they would plan an escape. If the slaves got caught trying to get away, their owners would beat them or cut body parts off so they could not escape again. If they got away without anyone seeing them, they usually run away to Canada where they would be free. They cannot leave their owners property without a written pass because the slave owners wanted control over the slaves. They could not own weapons because the slaves might shoot their owner. Slaves were not allowed to learn how to read or write because the slaves may start to think about freedom and try to escape.

1. e) How does the notion of slavery relate to the novel? Does the study of slavery help you understand the novel better?

Ans: The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird is constructed from the contradictions of Christianity and prejudice, thus the Southern society builds a strong sense of integrity that masks their immoral prejudice. The morals of slavery greatly clashed with the morals of Christianity.

The Civil War

1. a) Identify the southern states

Ans: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina

1. b) Who was the US president who proclaimed war against the south?

Ans: Abraham Lincoln

1. c) Why was the Civil War fought?

Ans: Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, fired on Union forces holding Fort Sumter, which was located in Charleston Harbor. The bombardment lasted 34 hours and resulted in Union evacuation of the Fort.

1. d) When was this war fought?

Ans: The US Civil War began on 12 April 1861 at 4:30 am.

1. e) What was the outcome of this war?

Ans: It abolished slavery as a legal institution in the United States. The seceded states were eventually reabsorbed into the Union. Before the Civil War, sentences began with, "The United States ARE" After the war, it became, "The United States IS". The war resulted in accelerating invention and technology.

1. f) How does the Civil Rights movement relate to the novel?

Ans: Lee wrote the novel during the beginning of the Civil Rights era. Lee's book was published in 1960 - a time of tumultuous events and racial strife as the struggle in the Civil Rights movement grew violent and spread into cities across the nation, and into the American consciousness on TV screens and the nightly news.

Jim Crow’s Laws

1. a) What/who is Jim Crow?

Ans: The name Jim Crow sticks with most Americans because of the Jim Crow laws enacted after the American Civil War. Many of these laws were designed to keep Blacks and Caucasians separate. Some expressly forbid marriage between races, sexual contact between races. Others, like the famous one Rosa Parks violated, sectioned out public services as on buses where Blacks had to ride in the back.

1. b) What were Jim Crow Laws?

Ans: State and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965

1. c) What was the response of the slaves and Blacks to these laws?

Ans: They started the civil rights movement.

1. d) Do we see the Jim Crow surface in the novel? If so then in which part of the novel?

Ans: Yes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man charged with raping a white woman was not accorded the usual presumption of innocence.

LA Online Learning 2011: Comic Strip

1. Why did you choose the different pictures or background(s)?

I chose a shopping centre as the background as I usually see discrimination taking place in shopping mall, especially in shopping centres which as very oftenly crowded. Moving on, I chose gangster looking guys as they are the main group of people who usually discriminate other people, they may think that the person they are referring to may not be able to hear them, however sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry.

2. How do they contribute to the elements (plot, setting, characterization) of your narrative?

All my choices have a purpose. I chose a shopping centre as the background as I usually see discrimination taking place in shopping mall, especially in shopping centres which as very oftenly crowded. Moving on, I chose gangster looking guys as they are the main group of people who usually discriminate other people, they may think that the person they are referring to may not be able to hear them, however sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry. Basically, the plot is: 2 young hooligans are at the mall, they see a fat man, they make fun of the fat man, the fat man hears what they say, hooligans = dead. I used a joke: “He so fat that when he stands on a weighing scale, I can see my phone number!” I used it to further prove evidently that those 2 boys are young and are delinquents. In the last box, I purposely enlarged the fat man, to the extent that he is over-towering the boys, to show that based on strength and power, the fat man is no doubt the stronger side, I also purposely reduced the size of the 2 boys to show the comparison between the size of the fat man and the 2 boys.


3. How did you make use of the different elements to contribute to the theme you have chosen?

The theme I have chosen is discrimination, because it was a recent topic in our class discussions. My comic strip is mainly trying to show that discrimination is BAD. People who discriminate others will not have a good ending. “ Do to others what you want others to do to you” If you discriminate others, you have no idea of what the other person is capable of doing to you, or even if the other party has a group of friends with him. I purposely made the fat man in my comic strip look abnormally larger than the 2 boys to show a clear distinction between the 2 parties, based on strength and pure power.

Thats about it, thanks for reading!

Wei Jin.

After you, my dear Alphonse.

Hey! I'm back! I will be blogging on this question today: Would you have treated Boyd or someone who is not of the same race as you differently? Why or why not? This question is in reference to a short story written by Shirley Jackson, After you, my dear Alphonse.
My answer: No, I would not treat someone differently just because someone is of a different race from I am. I believe in equality. I believe that everyone should be treated equally, no one should be treated better than another, bias. I believe that everyone should be given an equal opportunity to shine, or show-case their talent. Just because someone is of a different race from you does not mean that he/she should be treated better or worse. Firstly, the race that person comes from, was not his/her choice, it was predestined. A person can't change his/her race just like that, furthermore being bullied or even treated better does not do the person any good. A person who treats a someone differently just because of his/her race, is someone who is biased. Treating someone who is of a different race better, just shows that that person is a suck-up, a bootlicker. People like this do things like this, because they expect a reward, a praise. It just shows that they are very cunning, sneaky. It is definetely no good. Just think, if someone treated another person of a different better, how would he treated ANOTHER person of a DIFFERENT race? To add on, those people who are bias against people of another race is just simply a racist, a coward. The most common race being discriminated is the African Americans, a person who has a brownish, black skin tone, does not definetely mean that he/she is from India or Indonesia. What is wrong with having a brownish, black skin tone?
That will be the end of the question, I hope the readers will be able to benefit from my answer from my POV.
Regards,
Wei Jin

Ok, so last Friday we had a lesson on the differences between:
1. Bias
2. Stereotyping
3. Prejudice
4. Discrimination
Bias

From the Cambridge dictionary, it often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment.

Stereotyping

From the Cambridge dictionary, it means to have a fixed idea about what a particular type of person is like, especially an idea that is wrong.

Prejudice

From the Cambridge dictionary, it means an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.

Discrimination

From the Cambridge dictionary, it means treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, because of their skin colour, religion, sex, etc.

Basically, what Mrs Anu explain is that these are the different stages leading up to discrimination which is the " worse of the worse", starting with bias, stereotyping, prejudice and lastly discrimination.
Bias is being influenced by friend, parents, etc, to the extend that you have this fixed opinion of this person which makes you support or disapprove of this person. Can be both in good and bad ways.
Stereotyping is having a fixed idea of someone without evidence to support view of that person, oftenly has to do with the mind, not spoken or addressed openly. Most of the time, in a bad way.
Prejudice is to have a unfair accusation or statement about someone or something which has no proof or has not been clearly anaylsed and proven. Oftenly in a bad way.
Discrimination is the treating of different people based on different reason such as, ancestry, disability, education, etc. Discrimination can come in different forms, which leads to our next activity: Types of discrimination. ALL the time in a bad way.

These are a few of the type of discrimination, followed by an example (not intended to offend anyone):
1. Based on ancestry -- Main land Chinese are not allowed to work in high-classed English hotels.
2. Based on race -- Malays are Karang Gunis.
3. Based on gender -- Males are generally better in everyway compared to females.
4. Based on education -- Students from Hwa Chong are better than students from other schools.
5. Based on sex -- Your boss seems to be sexual attracted to another female worker which has the same experience and work time as you but you find out that she is paid more than you.
6. Reverse discrimination -- When you don't get a job that you are highly qualified for because the company has to fill in their quota of a certain race. The person may be less qualified.
7. Based on disability -- People who are handicapped are generally considered useless.
8. Based on sexual orientation -- Another employee of the same experience and work time is paid more than you because she dressed sexily and is "close" to the boss.
9. Based on employment -- Denying employment opportunities to a person because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability.
10. Based on age -- Children under 15 are not mature yet.
11. Based on appearance -- People who dress sloppy and dirty are seen as a poor, poor educated person.
12. Based on intelligence -- People who are stupider require more time to do a certain task compared to a "normal person".
13. Based on perception -- People who think that homework is stupid are stupid, compared to people who thinks homework is good.
14. Based on medical problems -- People with AIDS cannot work in a massage parlour.
15. Based on nationality -- Chinese are considered as people with small, slim eyes.
16. Based on marital status -- People who are divorced cannot be a matchmaker.
17. Based on background -- People who live in HDBs are poor.
18. Based on economic -- People who are rich are snobby.
19. Based on genes -- Men who are born as though they look like girls are homosexuals.
20. Based on political affiliation -- Relative who are in the same department in the parliament will definetely help each other.
21. Based on brand -- People who use Nike products are not cool compared to people who use Adidas.

Continuing, we will group the different types of discrimination into 3 main groups, 1. Gender
2. Background
3. Appearance

Gender:
Based on genes
Based on marital status
Based on perception
Based on intelligence
Based on appearance
Based on age
Based on employment
Based on sexual orientation
Reverse discrimination
Based on sex
Based on gender

Background
Based on brand
Based on political affiliation
Based on genes
Based on economic
Based on marital status
Based on nationality
Based on medical problems
Based on employment
Based on appearance
Based on ancestry
Based on background

Appearance

Based on brand
Based on genes
Based on economic
Based on medical problems
Based on perception
Based on intelligence
Based on appearance
Based on employment
Based on sexual orientation
Based on disability
Based on race

Thats the end of the blog post. Hope all of the readers will benefit from discrimination from my POV.

Regards,
Wei Jin

Literature and Life - Shel Silverstein

So now I am going to share my answers to the questions on some of Shel Silverstein poems.

The Little Boy and the Old Man.
Q1. What is the underlying message that is being conveyed in this poem?
Ans: The underlying message is that people nowadays focus largely on their adulthood and teenagerhood, leaving and neglecting the children and the elderly. This poem is trying to tell us that, life is balanced, example: there are 4 stages in life, childhood, teenagerhood, adulthood and the elderly, there are 2 stages in life where people focus more on, teenagerhood and adulthood, leaving childhood and elderhood which are neglected. The poem shows us that childhood and elderhood are in someway similar in the fact that both are ignored and neglected.

Q2. Has Shel Silverstein used any particular poetic technique that brings out this message more clearly?
Ans: Yes. Shel used dialogue, he used dialogue to allow us to understand the situation more clearly by using direct speech to describe the current events, he also made the answers short and simple which is easy to understand.

Messy Room
Q1. Can you say that the poem is humorous? If so how?
Ans: Yes, the descriptions in the poem are exaggerated, such as :"And his smelly old sock has been stuck to wall" this exaggeration is too obvious to guess, ask yourself, which sock is so dirty and old that sticks to the wall?

Q2. What aspect of the human character has been highlighted in this poem?
Ans: The poem has highlighted that humans are sometimes quick to blame others and not themselves, the first person that comes their mind when something wrong happens, never will ever think of themselves first, its always someone else.

Cloony the Clown
Q1. Explain the irony in this poem.
Ans: In this poem, the irony is that when Cloony tried to be funny, nobody laughed but instead insulted him, however when was serious and did not want to be funny, everybody laughed.

Q2. Does Shel Silverstein manage to convey some harsh realitiesin this poem?
Ans: Yes, he does. He shows us that in life, expect the unexpected, sometimes things just does'nt go the way you want it to go, life in unpredictable.

Q3. What poetic devices has the poet used to effectively convey his message?
Ans: Shel has used allusion, enjambment, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia.

2011

Happy New Year, yeah I know i'm kind of late. So this is like the second week into the new year, i started school just this week on 10 Jan. New year, new teacher. So in Sec 2, my class has a change in teacher, however our form teacher, Mrs Anu continued to teach us LA. So this year:
1)Maths - Mr Colin Toh
2)IH - Mrs Tan Jon Lin
3)LA - Mrs Anu( of course)
4)CL - Mrs Wong
5)LSS - Ms Lim
This year, we have a new "subject": Malay. Its kind of fun on the first lesson which was today, learning a new language just seems interesting. I always wanted to learn Korean, but unfortunately third lang does not have it. This week is roughly about to end and it seems quite ok to me ( until all the homework comes in). Really hope I do well this year both for badminton and studies. This year is really important!!!

Sincerely,
Wei Jin