Untitled

[grandmatoby-blog]

Data Representations

So most of our data was pretty banal. Here is a picture of it.

What this is showing you is that most words fall within a reasonably normal range of frequency. However, there was one piece of data in this experiment we found particularly interesting. When we ran one Breitbart article through the frequency analysis, it showed that the word ‘working’ was used at afrequency of 10.2, which means that it was used a lost between both that one article and it’s comments. It’s interesting that this word in particular has stood out, but more research would need to be done to speculate as to why this may be.

Finally, here is the link to our github:

https://github.com/mmaron/globalizationfinal

which contains the programs we used to gather this data, along with the links we used.

[grandmatoby-blog]

TUMBLR 4

I made my map based on Bobby’s narrative’s interpretation of Los Angeles, or “The Big Los.” This description happens while Bobby is traveling on foot through a long list of places in Los Angeles to go to look for his son. He runs through different types of terrain: forest, beach, etc., and then his conscious goes into even more detail about the barrios. We are told that the curves of the roads connecting these sparkling cities in “The Big Los” resembled the sequins on a quinceañera dress (233). So the map I drew is one that has interconnected dots of light, which represent the cities, and are the sequins on the dress, and the pink lines are the roads that connect the cities, and fill in the color of the dress.

I think that this reveals that there are many different ways the characters in the novel can view the world. Bobby, who is obsessed with working, views the streets he runs down as a means to an end, a network that is almost rendered lifelike by the people that all rush down them. This contrasts with Los Angeles’s musicality, which is established in other character’s chapters.

Bobby’s map is also shaped by culture. He sees the web of connected cities not only as a dress, but also as a quinceañera dress. Bobby visualizes an image from Mexican culture when he thinks of the place that he considers his home. This, in turn, is telling of how Bobby places himself in this map.  

[grandmatoby-blog]

Reflection 3

Class has been going well. I feel like I have been talking a bit less in discussions than usual, but I think that’s okay since I usually felt like I was talking too much before. Speaking less has also given me more time to process other people’s comments, and I think that they’re all very interesting.

I’m also excited about the group project. So far I’ve met with my group once to discuss what we want to do, and we all have a general shared idea that we will do something related to radical “news” writing. We don’t know what groups or what content specifically we want to look at yet, though.

Personally, I would like to analyze radical “news” articles to see if they have any distinguishing sentence structures or choices of word that are also common among other forms of writing, like advertising or other kinds of internet articles. I think it would be especially interesting to see if we could find a statistically significant distinguishing feature among all radical sites, regardless of left or right affiliation, that indicates that this is a genre of article that is distinguishable from just “news.”

This idea might be a bit of a challenge, though. Because this might be too hard, I also wouldn’t mind ending up doing a project that’s only tangentially related to this one. During our first group meeting, we all described a basis for each of our ideas, and everyone else’s seemed good, so I’m looking forward to whatever specific plan we end up doing.

[ienjoyfruits-blog]

Is History Real?

I enjoy listening to Alan Watts. I have never watched his videos before. I find I have a more difficult time watching him than listening to him. When I listen, I am more able to absorb him on a conceptual and intellectual level and his work satisfies me on that wavelength.

As I watch, however, his presence and ideas seem much more a social game than an intellectual discourse. I cannot help to to notice how white and British he is and how appropriated his livelihood can be interpreted as. He is a philosopher of the East, yet he is white and British. Given his relationship to history can he be a great or even ethical philosopher?

HIs video argues ideas ought to be taken at face value, in the present, of the present, and for the present. 

I think this viewpoints that Watts briefly expounds, very closely articulates Hall. And I have found Hall’s essay to be among the most moving works I have read this semester. 

I think it is powerful to the extant that it is true. It deploys a wisdom that academic papers do not always have. It can be difficult to articulate exactly what makes this paper wise as compared to another, say Katz’s counter topography. But, the intuitive sense I have after reading Hall’s essay, as with any good essay, is that it evokes ideas and conceptions from within. Hall is helping me to understand what I feel I already knew, whereas Katz essay reads to me with a sense of conceptual distance.  

I would like to make a connection between Watts and Hall. Watts is lecturing as a white, British academic, specializing in Hindu and Buddhist history and philosophy. He lectures mostly in the US to an American audience of the 1950s-1970s. Hall, also a British Academic, specializing in cultural studies, Black, and born and raised in Jamaica, writes for a presumably academic audience, in 1990.

I found it interesting how two people with different histories, in different times, and with different academic specialities, could espouse such a similar theory for potentially such different aims.

Watts aims to essentially enlighten a Christian audience into hindu and buddhist philosophy. Hall aims to salvage and revitalize the ethos of African diaspora.

Yet they both rely heavily on this one, potentially simple idea. History does not exists. There is only the present, and history only exists to the extant that the present is aware of it.

As hall beautiful evokes, “meaning is never finished or completed, but keeps on moving to encompass other, additional or supplementary meanings” (229).

What is interesting about this interpretation of history or a lack there of, is that it potentially undermines globalization and diaspora. Taking these ideologies towards there extremes, one could posit, everything always was and is a function of the global, and everyone never was or will have home or a from. There is no such thing as from. There is no such thing as was. There is only the place you are. 

I don’t know if I like these frameworks though. They are provocative, and I do prefer them to their polar extreme; history is embedded, entrenched, and here to stay. 

But, I can’t help but to feel disheartened by the idea that history can be forgotten, because as the adage goes forgotten history is doomed to be repeated. 

I do find myself ruminating over ideas of imperialism and appropriation. They certainly happened, it certainly is horrid beyond speech. But, is imperialism essentially European, or white?

I really don’t know, and I’m not sure we can. I discussed this in a previous comment, about how conquest and power are synonymous with written history, and have manifested in essentially all cultures to some degree.  

It is uncomfortable to minimize imperialism and violence. But all it takes is nihilism or a massive historical time scope, say one million years, to do just so. It’s just, I also cannot but to have the feeling that, if it wasn’t Spain, it would have been China, and if it wasn’t China, it would have the Incas, and if it wasn’t the Incas, it would have been the Ottomans, and if not the Ottomans it would have been the caliphate, and if not the caliphate the kingdom of Ghana. 

And yet, it was Europe, and this reality is now, probably not forever, but certainly here now.

[grandmatoby-blog]

I disagree with the idea that the present is all we have, and that as such the past doesn’t matter. I think that what we read in White Teeth makes sense of why such a sentiment would be false: things exist in cycles. What happened to you in your past influences what decisions you make now. Everything that is happening now is only a result of something that happened generations behind us. So, even if history technically might not exist, it still holds great influence over the present.

In this case, I believe that a history of globalization and imperialism does influence the diaspora of people today. It has to. Even if none of it matters in a million years, if we look at a smaller, but still large, time scope, say 1000 years, it’s easy to understand how the past has influenced the present. The present is only a result of what happened before it. I believe that this argument lends itself to the idea that globalization is what influences diaspora, since everything that happens is only as a response to a previous happening. 

[happymealhegemony-blog]

Visit Original Link

If we allow ourselves a more flexible working definition of diaspora, perhaps an answer may come more clearly into focus, regarding the causes and effects of diaspora. In my last post I examined the nature of local borders—how they come about, and why, and where. And in light of the emphasis made in Teju Cole’s Open City on the city scape and its daunting effects, perhaps urban borders deserve a second examination. 

The audio attached above was recorded in New Orleans, Louisiana. Specifically, it was recorded as I walked one block down an alley street, one block down the infamous party-centered Bourbon Street, and then one block back down an alley.

The sonic border of amplitude is most notable when listening. There is quiet, and then there is not, and then it returns.  But beyond that, what other borders can be heard? As you listen, you will hear drums. There is an interesting law in New Orleans, specific to this street: you cannot beg, but you can perform for tips. And so what many of the homeless do (most of whom, notably, are kids), is beat on a paint bucket with a drum stick and put a jar for tips before them. The result is an endless racket. The moment they stop drumming, they can be arrested. Desperation bleeds into their rhythms. It is a tired beat, like that of a war drum. 

Second, bouncers at bars can be heard shouting, advertising what they have inside (drinks, women), and announcing who is allowed to enter (21+, those who can afford a cover charge). 

All of this made me think of a recent article by Allison Arieff for the NYTimes titled, “Designing a More Inclusive City”. 

It may be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/designing-inclusive-cities.html?_r=0

In this article, Arieff describes the “weaponry” used in San Francisco’s war on the visible homeless population. In the 1990′s, for example, all of the benches in the Civic Center Plaza were removed. There is no longer any place for people to sit, or, more importantly, sleep. And of course there are the same amount of homeless people. So where do they go? Enter the rise of tent cities. Tent cities abound in San Francisco, with the largest containing around 350 residents of the 6700 total homeless. Their diaspora is that of safe-place to safe-place, anywhere they can pitch their tents. But these places are disappearing. Prop Q, which was recently passed, banned the pitching of sidewalks on tents… San Francisco borders are like boa constrictors, always tightening… 

Where then, is there left to run to? Can you be a refugee in your own city? When there’s no place to find quiet, or no place to make money, or no place to sleep, well, then my answer is yes. 

Thoughts? 

[grandmatoby-blog]

I wonder if diaspora can be defined as more than place. If you’ve never belonged in your city, can you call it yours? If the answer is no, then can there exist people for whom a personal diaspora does not exist? 

It’s clear in this instance that the homeless are being targeted by the cities laws. So then, is  the diaspora of the homeless a continuation of globalization, or a resistance to it? I think that it is both. On the one hand, the targeted laws are created as a direct result of globalization. However, continuing to live in a place that tries so hard to force you out can be seen as both a resistance, and a necessity, because the homeless have no other option. 

Take the drumming mentioned as an example. When the city created laws against begging people started drumming instead. Here globalization is what is driving diaspora, since it is what is forcing the homeless to drum constantly, but it is also a foil to the intentions of the law. The law, made to get rid of the homeless, is instead circumvented by them. I think that in this way, globalization and diaspora both influence each other, and neither can be said to be entirely influential of the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZZ1x8Heg4c

[age-of-mass-consumption-blog]

Diaspora & Our Globalizing World

Using Katz’s idea of constructing a “counter topography,” I think there’s a true human-geographical connection between the way in which people imagine place in connection to shifting discourse/practice which creates the cultural diaspora – a “space” defined by the distance from particularly-salient place. With that in mind, diaspora becomes an extremely relative and flexible experience. It’s not a claim that can be delegitimized, but rather a social experience (often times unifying) lived through the way identity, practice, and place operate. In this way, diaspora becomes an extremely spatially-driven concept. But if Katz means counter topography to be a multi-dimensional analysis – one that includes history and time, not just space – we should also consider how the motion and progress of imagination can create the diaspora. Perhaps Samad or Professor Saito, while diasporic through the notions of space, also occupy a “temporal diaspora” driven by the deprecation of popular discourse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

How else, then, can globalization and diaspora come together except through the former’s rapid acceleration of the latter? The context of globalization in its shrinking of space-time and increasing interpenetration of cultural ideas and motions undoubtedly subject the various forms of unity and association across the landscape to greater amounts of diasporic narrative. Situated in postmodernity, globalization helps to expand how diaspora operates. In our texts we’ve read diaspora as processes centered in religious, cultural, ideological (& other) centerpieces, undoubtedly creating more complex frameworks of diaspora than perhaps could be constructed 50, or even 20, years ago. In this way globalization fundamentally reframes diaspora without changing its core character. Perhaps the passage of signal fires, once used to constitute religious events across the diaspora in rabbinic times, appropriately pairs with this idea. The complexity of modern diaspora and the various horizons/nuance which globalization impose (along with the obvious innovation of technology) illustrate the progression from a time of signal fires to today’s vast array of diasporas.

(from https://gothicpagan.deviantart.com/art/Beacons-of-light-204722514)

As I read over this post thus far, I’m curious about what I have now highlighted in bold. Though I have mostly framed diaspora (in response to our texts) as a subjugating cultural process, I wonder about the politicization of “diaspora” and the quest of hierarchically-organizing various processes of diaspora. Should claims of delegitimizing certain diasporas be taken seriously? Or is the nature of challenging a diaspora narrative (as I right now believe it to be:) fundamentally flawed?

[grandmatoby-blog]

I’m curious as to what you mean by “delegitimizing” and “challenging” diasporas, because I think that these two words both can mean a wide spectrum of things, which change the basis of what you’re asking. For instance, in saying that diaspora is not a claim that can be delegitimized, I read this as you saying that inherently, by definition, diaspora is so personal that no one else can define it. If this is the case, then I am also very curious about the politicization of diaspora. 

As you said, diaspora is “a social experience (often times unifying) lived through the way identity, practice, and place operate.” And as we know, partly as a result of globalization, the internet is now widely influential. So how can we ground diaspora when what we see, say, on the internet, changes what we think? For instance, if politicians advertise a certain narrative, I believe that that does influence how people view their own life. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/09/the-branching-possibilities-of-the-facebook-russian-ad-buy/541002/

Then, how can we ever really be sure that our own social experience is not influenced by what politicians want us to identify with? And, does that matter?

[grandmatoby-blog]

Reflection 2

My favorite reading in this course has definitely been White Teeth. I loved all of the ideas Smith explored in the novel, especially those centering around truth and honesty and coincidence and fate. I’m not sure if the midterm essay is supposed to be on the books we’ve read, or if it’s meant more for the readings, but if it’s okay to write about White Teeth I probably will.

If the midterm does have to be about an article we’ve read instead of a book, I think I might use “How Technology Disrupted the Truth” by Katharine Viner. This too takes on the concept of finding truth amidst a barrage of noise. I also find it interesting that Viner evokes this image of the hard-hitting newsroom journalist to contrast the present-day media. I’ve always gotten the impression that “true” journalism was as much about curating the truth to the public as it was discovering the truth itself. This distinction between what is true and what is valuable, like White Teeth, again brings up the importance of context in situating the meaning of a truth.

I’ve been learning a lot in this course. I love the topics we’ve been covering, especially recently. Analyzing the internet in terms of globalization is fascinating. Hearing everybody else’s input on the subject of technology and how we are all influenced by it is a lot of fun; people in the discussion are able to articulate the reality that I usually just live with, which feels like a strange blend of discovery but also familiarity that I really enjoy

[grandmatoby-blog]

Zadie Smith on social media

(This is not for an assignment)

So I was reading a bit about Zadie Smith and I stumbled upon this article which I thought was really interesting, especially in the context of what we are talking about in class. Not only is this article relevant to our current topic, but it harkens back to the theme of coincidence in White Teeth, since I found this topic accidentally in my Googling of Smith. 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/21/zadie-smith-says-using-social-media-would-threaten-her-writing

I think that her arguments make sense, but also some of what she says seems contrary to what most Oberlin students would believe. For instance, she told the interviewer “I want to have my feeling, even if it’s wrong, even if it’s inappropriate, express it to myself in the privacy of my heart and my mind. I don’t want to be bullied out of it.” This contrasts with the mentality of trying to educate others on the internet, which, in the best case scenario, would end with changing someone’s “feeling” about something. The one thing that reconciles her argument with the "woke” understanding of the internet’s purpose is that she’s only talking about herself and her feelings, not those of racists or trolls who are openly hateful on the internet. I also feel like her argument expresses her opinion on personal growth. From what she said, it seems that she believes other people can’t teach you what beliefs are right and wrong; you have to learn it for yourself. This is a very wise sentiment. If I ever have the time I’d like to reread White Teeth and see if this view of personal growth can tell me anything else about the characters and why they behave how they do. 

She also said that “I understand it’s important to be appropriate in public life, in social life, in political life. But in your soul? No, this is a different thing.” This is also incredibly interesting; it seems that she’s saying that you can think whatever horrible things you want, as long as your outward actions are appropriate. Maybe she was trying to demonstrate this idea in White Teeth. It’s easy to dislike Archie or the Chalfens because we know what they think, especially in terms of race, but if they try their hardest to do what’s appropriate, do they really deserve judgement?

Bringing it back to our more current discussion, Smith also mentioned the radicalization of the internet, and how the most controversial and aggressive opinions are also the loudest. In reference to social media, she said, “Isn’t it amazing, the wells of hatred? It’s a shameful confession, in a way, but I’ve never looked at social media.” That’s an excellent way to describe the polarized groups, as “wells of hatred.” Radical internet groups relentlessly attack each other, and essentially shut everyone else down. Instead of being a safe space for everyone to share, the internet has become an aggressive place, that’s only truly accessible to those who are willing to join the fight. 

Smith didn’t like the aggressiveness, the “hate”, so she left. She tells the interviewer that she doesn’t use Twitter or Instagram, because she thinks people “should be able to retain the right to be wrong.” Here, in a world where social media is almost a necessity, Smith refuses to be interpolated by what others say. 

[grandmatoby-blog]

The internet and globalization

I remember when I was younger and computers were really just starting to get big there was this popular commercial on Disney Channel. The commercial was for a campaign the fruit rollups company was running, where they gave away computers to lucky customers, and then for every computer somebody won they would also donate one to kids in Rwanda. The person in charge of this campaign said that it was “a great platform for kids and parents to learn how to help children around the world. Those who participate in our Win One Give One promotion build on that platform and really do see that they can make a difference.” All in all, they ended up donating a little less than 400 computers.

https://blog.generalmills.com/2011/09/laptops-on-their-way-to-rwanda/

The discourse surrounding the internet is generally very positive. The internet provides a realitively quick, easy, and cheap way for people around the world to communicate. Because of this perceived accessibility, people tend to put a lot of confidence in the internet. It is seen as an equalizer and as a defender of the common man; anyone with the internet should be, at some level, safe. With the internet you can learn what I can learn, and you can see what I can see. This promotes the dangerous assumption that because everyone can say whatever they want, everyone else will listen.

The internet may seem like an impartial place for everyone to share, but  we see daily that the economic giants who have always tried to control the majority of people use the internet as just another means to do so. In the past year we’ve had two major examples of how big businesses are able to curate what we see. Take Facebook, for example. During the election it’s news algorithm favored posting inflammatory and inaccurate articles instead of the more mundane truth, because the sensationalized versions got more clicks. Some people think this might have skewed how people felt about the election. Another example is YouTube’s sorting algorithm for taking down inappropriate videos. This algorithm was implemented to make sure that advertisers were happy with what their companies were being associated with. It ended up removing videos of war crimes in Syria. These crimes had been filmed by Syrian citizens, who had to resort to documenting the crimes themselves after the media had left. Agencies that look into the war crimes in Syria had previously used these videos to keep track of what was going on and as evidence for later prosecuting the crimes. One person who worked on this project said that “What’s disappearing in front of our eyes is the history of this terrible war.”

Ultimately, the internet is usually seen as some great means of connection, but really it’s not, and we end up seeing the power structure that has already been formed by globalization reflected in the internet.

[grandmatoby-blog]

Neutrality

[grandmatoby-blog]

Wow @White Teeth

So this isn’t for an assignment, but I just wanted to write a bit because I’m hyped up from that ending of White Teeth. I loooved this book! I wanted to talk a little about the nazi part. I was unsurprised by the fact that the nazi was still alive, especially after Archie’s talk with Samad about how some people just can’t kill. It reminded me of this scene from the office (cw: the office, genetalia, health insurance, medical stuff)

Where Samad is Dwight, Archie is Kevin, and whether or not people can be capable of killing others is Kevin’s medical condition. It feels obvious that Archie needs Samad to believe that Archie wasn’t capable of killing the nazi.

The thing I find most interesting about this final scene is how much people stick to their ways. Everyone is at the conference because they have done just exactly what they were always going to do. The one thing here that is specifically interesting is Archie’s behavior when Millat shoots at the nazi. Archie logically agrees that the nazi should die, and he is always incredibly indecisive, but in this moment he has to make a quick decision, and he tries to save the nazi. Even after seeing that the nazi will not change, and that he deserves it. Even though it puts his own life at risk. Even though this decision, if he succeeded, would likely be his last, Archie makes the choice to save the nazi.

In the car when Archie was going to kill himself he brought his war medal and his marriage certificate, because he wanted to have his mistakes with him when he died. “In death as in life and all that.” In those moments where Archie had been hit with the bullet and is the closest to death he’s been since the beginning of the novel, Archie is again surrounded by all the “mistakes” of his past: his family and friends, the nazi, and the butcher who saved him. This all feeds into the narrative that, unlike what we are told at the beginning of the story, nobody can outrun their past, even though, like Archie, they may try. 

In the final moments of the book we see Archie break out of his past routine by making a decision to stand by what he previously regarded as a mistake. But that doesn’t keep him from rooting for the mouse, whose future has already been determined, to run. Archie has no next generation to uphold his legacy of running from the past, and running from that which has already been decided, so he instead urges the mouse to “go on, my son.”

[humansizedshrimp-blog]

the first and last lines of my post are on this dang building

THE FINE ARTS A HERITAGE FROM THE PAST

We were all encouraged to get off campus, to explore how globalization relates to sections of Oberlin that aren’t inherently designed for the college’s current or prospective students. There are, however, a few places in Oberlin that aim to be both resources for undergraduates and serve the less transient population of this midwestern town. The Allen Memorial Art Museum is just such a place.

Constructed in 1917, the main wing of the Allen is designed to emulate the architectural styles of such places as the Palazzo Medici, while the 1976 extension was created to house more modern “neutral” gallery spaces. With this in mind, one can potentially read the Allen as removed from the history of its surroundings. To what degree is the museum a tool for the college to claim the cultural resources of globalized cities like New York or Los Angeles? Oberlin College tour guides make special mention of the museum’s many offerings to students, careful to highlight how it has been ranked by various publications as the second or third best college museum in the country. Above the front entrance of the museum, one can see inscribed “THE CAUSE OF ART IS THE CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE”. This is a statement that brings into focus a popular conception of arts spaces as transcendent in nature, reflections of collective interests and experiences rather than individual ones.

However, there are several pieces of information to take into account that highlight a commitment to maintaining a link between this college owned space and Oberlin. The museum itself is completely free to enter and often tries to engage Oberlin community members outside of the college in a variety of ways. In addition to offering public programs for Oberlin residents of all ages, the Allen curates its exhibitions with accessibility in mind. The placement of the building, raised and set back from the street, is easy to read as exclusionary and, for me at least, evokes notions of elitism. Yet when the Allen was built it was the only college owned building in its section of Oberlin. It was explicitly designed to be for both student and lifelong Oberlin resident.

In my opinion, both readings of the Allen are completely valid. It is both accessible and impenetrable.  How to understand the Allen’s relationship to its surroundings depends on how much one is struck by the museum as a reflection of globalization. I can’t help but see the museum and its many resources as clear demonstrations of the college’s desire to attract students from metropolitan cities as part of a larger effort to make a profit from wealthy families. That said, I want to say that my reaction to the Allen could certainly be rejected by many people in town who see the museum as a point of pride for their community and not an insidious reflection of the college’s desire to push a kind of globalization onto Oberlin.

THE FINE ARTS A GIFT TO THE FUTURE

[grandmatoby-blog]

I’ve never heard this argument against the Allen before but I think it’s very interesting. I think that it shows that the pros and cons of globalization are wrapped up together. On the one hand you get a museum that gives everyone in town access for free, but on the other it’s probably just a money-making scheme by the college.

I find positive outcomes of capitalism interesting in general. In the reading we did it said that Henry Ford raised living wages, but only to get better workers. The pro here being that his workers were able to support themselves, while the con is them becoming more mechanic and dehumanized.

It’s especially interesting when this dichotomy is surrounding art. Art, especially when used to represent globalization, also is subject to these same pros and cons. Artists have the task of making something real, that is deep and represents something important, while also being able to sell it to rich people who love “the system.” 

I really liked this reflection, because I think it is one of the best examples of the grey areas in globalization that can be found at Oberlin.

[ienjoyfruits-blog]

A grumpy account of globerlin.

Without a connection, a sense of ownership, do we take care things? Yet, with a sense of ownership are we not compelled to protect, defend, feel emboldened and entitled? 

How easy it is, living in a caste system of extreme specialization, started by nature and hormones, continued by religion, enjoyed by an inbreeding few, seized by savvy scientists and capitalist, to write off any task to those unlucky individuals responsible. 

I know I enjoyed doing so on my afternoon excursion. Gross water backup, no problem, they pay someone minimum wage to deal with our carelessness and the small inconvenience of dealing with it ourselves.

Hungry, but don’t feel like cooking or cleaning. No problem, there are plenty more minimum and low wage people to take care of the whole gambit. And limitless selection, I elected to go with food from Korea. Although foreign food is hardly exotic anymore. Now to trick ourselves into something special, it must be pureed into a liquid nitrogen science experiment. It is very important to go through so much effort for fancy food because it shows how rich and smart we are; plus after spending so much on dinner we don’t feel as guilty passing by that homeless man.

Have this hole in your gut? Tried to fill it with genetically chemicalized food from Mexico and China, made by low wage bodies. Still not quite happy? No problem, we have many things in our local, small college, uniquely, largest in America, publicly traded book stores. Finally fit in and feel connected by buying our sticker paper, so you can turn your digitally obsessive fetishization of social dynamics back into a bargain priced $10 reality. 

Look at all the fun choices where you can buy the image of fiercely independent intellectual you have always been craving!

Stay worm, with Oberlin eco products, made in Honduras. A country with a GDP 862 times lower than ours. Where 7.8% of children ages 5-14 are in the labor force. (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/honduras). 10% of those, or 18,000, which ever theoretical indicator helps us to picture faces on the bodies, are in industrial settings like mining, or factories, such as the one that made the champion eco fleece, future friendly.

It is important to use five syllable words when discussing how wrong we think this is. That especially helps the children!

Feeling a bit down thinking about the suffering and injustices of the world? We thought so, and that is why with a little bit of that coveted green paper, or magnetic swipe, you can buy THUMB SUMO! Buy this product and allow the creative mind of Jayson Kayser,from Philedephia to help you feel better (oh the internet). Exploit Chinese labor and Japanese culture, while keeping your money domestic!

Remember all the white Oberlin people that died in the boxer rebellion!

 “During the Boxer Rebellion as a whole, a total of 136 Protestant missionaries and 53 children were killed, and 47 Catholic priests and nuns, 30,000 Chinese Catholics and 2,000 Chinese Protestants” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion#Boxer_War).

Definitely a tragedy for those protestant people, just there to try to show them how good Christianity is!

[grandmatoby-blog]

This post really gets at what I think is one of the most problematic parts of globalization: the feeling of being overwhelmed. It reminds me of grapes of wrath, in that you can acknowledge that there is a problem but be unable to do anything about it. You can’t remove yourself from the system because someone will just take your place. 

An example of this is that you yourself acknowledge that the system that makes people have to work for minimum wage to make your food is bad, yet you choose to spend your money on that food anyway. There are shelves full of oberlin mugs and clothes that we spend money on and we don’t know where they came from. I think that this idea is captured by this meme:

Globalization connects people, and, as evident in the meme, people understand the system we all live in. But there are so many problems now, that we all know about, that it becomes impossible to fix any one thing. 

30,000 Chinese people killed, 18,000 children forced to work in factories, a homeless person on the side of the street. I think it becomes easier to accept that this is the way things are and do nothing about it when we see statistics like this. Globalization connects us, but it also puts the weight of the entire world on our shoulders, which is too much for anyone to bear.

[happymealhegemony-blog]

A Tour of the Border

Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra—it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable [On Exactitude in Science] today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map.

-Jean Baudrillard, “Simulacra and Simulation”

“Generally speaking, I feel safe in Oberlin,” explains a friend. “During the day I can walk anywhere by myself and still be fine. But after the sun sets, I don’t feel safe anywhere east of Tank.” With these words she constructs a border. It is a border that for some time only she could see. With these words, I construct a border, too, indelibly. 

It goes: West of North Park Street, safe. East of it, lawless, dangerous. Civilization, wasteland. Here, there. Us, them. Us, other. 

Now I cannot, on an eastward path, pass Tank and help but wonder: how did this border come about? What makes the house on the western side of the Park street any different from the house on the eastern side? Or is it more of a gradient, a sliding scale of danger? So that the farther you wander east from there, the more likely you are to be—what?—mugged? Assaulted?

I set out to see for myself. The attached photos were taken during my tour of this imagined border, starting from the southern end, and ending at the northern one. There is a Church, a park, a laundromat, an apartment complex, a water tower, and a football field. The rest is residential.

I tutored a family on the eastern side of this border. They went to school over there, too. See how it is when such borders are made? I speak of them as though they are lost. I speak of their school as though it were more than five blocks from my home. 

So, again, I pose the question: from what did this border arise? 

Does it matter that (according to Zillow) the average price of a home on the western side of this border is ~$140,000 whereas on the eastern side it is ~$80,000? Or does it matter more that the friend had a single bad experience over “there”? 

Further, this conversation got me thinking: what other borders are there? How else do it’s inhabitants divide up Oberlin? There is the ever-present talk of the “bubble,” of course, but where does the bubble end? Is this an on-campus off-campus border? Or is it the town itself? Whichever it is, and whether we like it or not, our bubble is permeable. See below:

[grandmatoby-blog]

This is what my mom bought me as a going away present when I left for college. It’s a self-defense weapon that conveniently doubles as a keychain.

In a perfect world borders might not exist. But I think that, while they do exist, it is important to acknowledge that they are known for a reason.

Borders can be enforced through finances, which you mention in your post. But another way borders are enforced, and one that I think you don’t give enough weight to, is with violence; especially against women, people of color, and other marginalized folks.

Just last year on campus a man got out of his car at an intersection to try to attack a student of color with a knife. S&S and police came in time because other students saw what was happening and called them.

Your friend told you where she feels safe. I can tell you that I also feel safe on the few blocks of Oberlin I am most familiar with, that are well-lit at night, and that are populated with people I know.

You asked if you are more likely to be mugged or assaulted the farther east you go from the border. The answer is yes. I don’t know how these borders came to be, but I do know that because they exist I need to abide by them just as much as people who don’t have the money to buy that $140,000 house.

[grandmatoby-blog]

Reflection #1

In high school psychology we learned about a theory by Carl Jung called collective unconscious. The main idea is that every person shares common instincts and inherited memories in their unconscious mind. These shared memories, Jung argued, are the same among every culture. One place these memories manifest themselves, for example, is in similarities of tropes in storytelling across different cultures.

           No matter what environment we are born into, we are surrounded by people who themselves have learned this collective unconscious. We are brought up with art and stories that, at some level, reflect this collective unconscious. So then we, too, learn this collective unconscious.

           What I find interesting is how different people can be depending on where and how they’ve been raised, even if they have shared, fundamental principles. Even in a single culture, specific traits that individualize each person affect their perception and thus actions in the world greatly.

           I’m taking this class because I want to learn more about the effects of globalization, specifically by analyzing the art and literature created by people who are influenced most by it. How are our commonalities and differences taken and built upon in different contexts? As technology allows us to experience other cultures and offers an easy route to connection, will we eventually grow together, or will there always be differences that are influenced by where we are from and who we are? Furthermore, how do we interpret art that not only draws from the existing connections we have, but also create new ones? Ultimately, I’m hoping to learn how others perceive the dynamic between globalization and diaspora by analyzing their representations of what those things mean to them, and how they relate to us.