Category: FYS 110

In reflection of the past few months here at UNE, there are many sights, sounds, routines and activities that come to mind. For instance, every single morning of the school week, my dormmate Gianna and I (and sometimes my friend Sarah), go to breakfast at 7:20 to get an early start to the day. This is probably one of my favorite routines I have developed since coming to college because breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I get to enjoy it with my friends. The sound of our three meal cards all ringing us in for breakfast at the same time every morning will definitely be a memorable one. 

I have also developed a routine of going to the campus center gym around four or five every night to get a lift in as well as some cardio. I have used this as an opportunity to get my heart rate up and sweat a little because I always feel better after I do. I have also used this as an opportunity to listen to some of my more upbeat music on my phone that I can’t necessarily listen to while I’m studying.

I have also become very acquainted with the library in its entirety this semester. At the beginning of the semester, my friends and I would all go and do homework on the bottom floor of the library and get snacks at the Windward Cafe. As each of our schedules became more hectic with things like work, clubs or working out, we began to study individually, which led me to discover the top floor of the library. I’ve studied in nearly every little nook of the upstairs library and have found it to be even too quiet up there at times, so I would do my work on the middle floor and occasionally eavesdrop on little conversations going on around me here and there. It was there where I sat to outline, plan out, and write Project 1 for about five hours all together. I’m a slow writer because I like to thoroughly understand what I’m writing about and be as articulate as I can be. This process produced my best work of the semester and the assignment I am most proud of. It was only when I have chosen to ditch the library and go back to my room that I have been the most unproductive and the most likely to let the temporary appeal of procrastination get the best of me. Sometimes it takes some trial and error to figure out what the best study space is for every different day, but it has been working out in my favor so far. 

Tennis Ball (physical item): This tennis ball would represent a significant part of my college story as the Tennis Club is the only club I have joined and it has had an impact on my social life here at UNE and my continued love for the game of tennis.

Clouds by Luke Faulkner (audio clip): This song has become a big part of my UNE experience because I always start a big study session by listening to it followed by many more classical piano pieces. This one is by far my favorite and it helps me so much to get in the mindset for studying. 

Photo of library study room key #6 (photo): For the multiple instances in which I have forced myself to study for six or seven hours straight throughout the semester, I have utilized UNE’s silent study rooms where I would study until the end of the two hours, end then renew the key if I was still in the “study zone” of my focusing. I have found these instances to be the most productive study sessions throughout the semester. 

Response to the first homework question for homework #11 (textual example): 

“Over the course of the semester so far, I have begun to notice my habits within my mindset, my learning, and my belief in myself. I have discovered areas in which I succumb to the fixed mindset, which is pretty much any situation where an understanding of something does not come relatively easy to me. In statistics, I will occasionally get an answer wrong over and over, and I only reluctantly will attempt to improve whatever strategy I am implementing. In this class, when I am getting writer’s block or can’t think of a certain word, I will often just stop and give up or procrastinate. I have discovered similar patterns across all of my courses, and am working to combat them with an attempt at Bain’s “self-efficacy”. As I made my goal to declare a major, I knew what I had to do was explore and research my major options as well as examine myself to discover a future that would fit me and satisfy me. I have been able to do research due to the requirements of Project 2, but I’ve also been able to discuss the Pre-Law focus with my friend who is a part of it right now. Everytime she has talked about her classes and the content she is learning about, I think to myself  “Man, I would love to be in that class”. This fact is what is truly convincing me that Political Science and Law are the route I want to take within the next four years.”

This passage by me is an honest evaluation of the habits and things that I have observed and learned about myself this semester. I will definitely narrow this down to the most important parts, but the passage really encompasses all of the important thoughts and feeling I’ve had about the semester.

Project 2 Major Exploration 

Connections Table 

FYS 110-C (Fall 2020) 

Prof. Frank 

Topics/ Questions	Boyer (Approaches to interpreting/evaluating a major)	Scheuer/Ungar (Connections to Liberal Learning)	___ENGLISH_______ Major Req.s
Career/Technical Training v. Liberal Learning	-“Students overwhelmingly have come to view general education as an irritating interruption– an annoying detour on their way to their degree. They all too often do not see how such requirements will help them get a job or live a life” (Boyer 217).-”About half the faculty said that undergraduate education in America would be improved if there were less emphasis on specialized training and more on liberal education” (Boyer 221).	-”A liberal education is not about developing professional or entrepreneurial skills, although it may well promote them. Nor is it for everyone; we need pilots, farmers, and hairdressers as well as managers, artists, doctors, and engineers. But we all need to be well-informed, critical citizens. And the liberal arts prepares students for citizenship in all three senses – civic, economic and cultural” (Scheuer 4).	-“The political science major emphasizes the development of skills in effective writing and speaking, as well as creative problem solving”. -“Our small classes and abundant individual attention from faculty give students ample opportunity to hone those skills”.-“The study of law involves many aspects of social life and integrates many fields of study. Judges and lawyers are expected to handle different litigations, ranging from social to medical, environmental and other applications. Thus, law schools encourage students to have diverse undergraduate majors”.
History/Tradition	-”the crisis of our time relates not to technical competence, but to a loss of social and historical perspective, to the disastrous divorce of competence from conscience” (224)	-“One of the traditional civic dimension, which embraces a range of activities such as voting and jury service, advocacy, volunteering, dialogue and information sharing, and other forms of participation in the public sphere” (Scheuer 4).	Learning outcomes: -“Have mastered essential facts relevant and necessary to the study of global political life. This involves a working knowledge of the key actors, structures, institutions and historical dynamics that constitute the contemporary political order. It also includes a broad familiarity with the historical roots of that order”.-”Have an informed sense of the historical dimension of the various political issues, developments, trends, theories and forms of inquiry relevant to the students’ interests”.
Social/Economic Implications	-“Students, in their search for a secure future, have read the signals all too literally, and the liberal arts have taken a back seat to the more practical, career-related training” “‘Employers recently have begun looking harder for liberal arts people” (Boyer 219).-”In response to marketplace demands, many institutions are offering narrow technical training and providing credentialing for occupations, devoid of rich intellectual content” (Boyer 223).	-”there is much concern about whether America is keeping up with CHina and other rising economies in the STEM disciplines” (Ungar 4)“Being a productive member of a community: doing something useful for oneself and for others, whether in a factory, farm, home, office, garage, or boardroom. It’s also about being a critical consumer and seeing the connections between political and economic spheres” (Scheuer 4).	Learning Outcomes: -”Be able to conduct sound and rigorous social inquiry using a variety of methodologies and techniques”.-”Be able to compete successfully for placement in graduate programs or employment relevant to the field of study”.
Ethical/Moral Issues	-”Specialists must make judgments that are not only technically correct but also include ethical and social considerations. And the values professionals bring to their work are every bit as crucial as the particularities of the work itself” (225)	-”The overall goal is to foster vibrant and prosperous communities marked by fairness, inclusion, and (where critical thinking comes in) intellectual rigor” (Scheuer 4).	“Have an enlightened understanding of the multicultural nature of global (but especially American) political life.”

1. Consider why Coates took the title for his book. How does the poem influence/alter/ clarify your understanding of Coates’s project?

Richard Wright’s poem “Between the World and Me” describes black narrator stumbling across the scene of a gruesome tar-and-feathering act in the woods and goes on to find the narrator in the same situation. As the narrator is describing this racist act, he describes it as the “thing” (line 2), and later claims that the details of this scene are “thrusting themselves between the world and me…” (lines 5 & 6). Therefore, he is suggesting that racism is the thing standing between him and the world, him and freedom, him and inner peace. It’s not something that he just goes on living his life and ignores because of how much it affects him. When the narrator was describing himself standing before the scene of the murder and observing how it had happened and comes to the realization that a life had been extinguished, he states that “the ground gripped my feet and my heart was circled by icy walls of fear” (lines 24 & 25). This raises the idea that when a person of color is made a victim of a racist act, the fear within the hearts and minds of other black people that the same thing could happen to them, holds them in place and stands between the world and them. This fear debilitates them from being able to move on in the world and feel equal and free. Racism stands between people of color and the world that is out there waiting for them.

Ta-Nehisi Coates named his book Between the World and Me after this harrowing poem by Richard Wright. In his book, Coates discusses racism as a way to explain the truths and his opinions behind it to his son. Coates shares personal experiences of racism and stories of how it has had a deep effect on many individual people of color as well as entire communities and even the nation as a whole. The enemy that perpetuates racism is named “the Dreamer” in his book. “The Dreamers” mostly consist of anyone who is white in America and simply anyone who seeks to use the privileges of their race to get ahead and be superior in some sense. As a result of the reading of the poem “Between the World and Me”, I am under the impression that Coates named his book this way in an attempt to tie in his concepts of “the Dreamers” and “believing you are white” because his believes that in “being white” one doesn’t need fear racist acts or acts that will keep them from the world and as a black man his fear of racism as well as racism itself stands between him and the World, or him and the “Dream”. By naming his book Between the World and Me Coates is able to emphasize to his son just how much racism affects his life because he is black, as well as how much it affects the lives of anyone who is black.

2. Connect Coates’s references to Wright and to James Baldwin (e.g., in the epigraph to Part III) to “the gift of study” (115) and/or his book’s overall emphasis on reading and writing.

Oxford English Dictionary defines oblivion as “the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening”. This suggests that in the Baldwin quote “and have brought humanity to the edge of oblivion; because they think they are white” (Coates 133) is trying to convey that people who “think they are white”, and therefore create a divide between themselves and the other “races” that they see, are creating a world in which in the racism had been implemented into social systems and daily life and won’t recognize these injustices as racism or wrong-doings. 

Coates writes about the significance of the human race among all things in the universe and emphasizes this by focusing on the “gift of study” which is a sole quality of humans. The way I see this connecting to Wright and Baldwin is that the “gift of study” can also mean the gift of acquiring knowledge, the gift of awareness. Humans can combat the “oblivion” that Baldwin feels is inevitable by educating themselves and living in the pursuit of truth. Wright’s poem was a raw and honest depiction of the racism that stands between the world and Coates in its worst and far most gruesome form. Reading this truth is eye opening and allows for the reader to become fully aware of the fear some people feel as a result of this in-between. Knowledge is power and ignorance is harmful.  

In a passage by Coates on page 104, he goes into great detail about the historical physical destruction of the black body and concludes with the recognition of the societal division it has led to, “It could only be the employment of carriage whips, tongs, iron pokers, handsaws, stones, paperweights, or whatever might be handy to break the black body, the black family, the black community, the black nation. The bodies were pulverized into stock and marked with insurance. And the bodies were an aspiration, lucrative as Indian land, a veranda, a beautiful wife, or a summer home in the mountains. For the men who needed to believe themselves white, the bodies were the key to a social club, and the right to break the bodies was the mark of civilization” (Coates 104). This harrowing interpretation of the slave experience exposes the truth of the objectification of black people, and describes how upper class white society physically beat them down to be predestined for the lower class both literally and perceptually. Coates quotes former Vice President John C. Calhoun, an adamant defendant of slavery, who openly admits the unwillingness of American society to accept black people as equals and condones it, “‘And all the former [white people], the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals’” (Coates 104). Reading these words, having been said by one of our country’s leaders, reveals the reality of the goals of the majority of America’s white population at the time, which was to make the black body out to be a lesser being of less worth, to be refused to associate with the “best” of Americans. Coates describes that white Americans saw themselves as having a right to break the black body, and then stand over and look down on it. This historical quote unveiled the severity of racism at the time of the Civil War. 

1. “For the men who needed to believe themselves white, the bodies were the key to a social club, and the right to break the bodies was the mark of civilization. ‘The two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black,’ said the great South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun. ‘And all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals’” (104). How do you think this idea functions to establish race – and not class or wealth – as a key division in the mid-1800s in this country?

John C. Calhoun’s idea about the divisions of society functions to establish black people as lesser people. He makes it clear that they are to be considered as even less than impoverished white Americans, saying that poor white people should be respected and treated as equals even though they are poor, suggesting that black people regardless of their level of wealth or success are of less worth. This reveals the inhumane nature of John C. Calhoun’s mindset and anyone who thought as he did, as well as showing Calhoun’s view of black people as simply being objects of monetary worth but not human. He makes it sound as if white people are the only people, as if class is only attributed to white people and the class of black people is entirely irrelevant because they are worthless regardless of their status of wealth or place in society. Knowledge of Calhoun’s idea of race conveys the mindset of any member of the Pro-Slavery movement at the time of the Civil War. Of course, there were other major economic and practical reasons why Southern Slave owners did not want to give up their slaves, but any person who disagreed with Calhoun at all would not be able to morally accept the fact that they own another person. This idea solidifies the objectification of black people in the minds of slave owners. 

3. Your choice II: Choose any other passage from our reading for today. Set it up, quote it, and raise a comment or question about it.

“Not long ago I was standing in an airport retrieving a bag from a conveyor belt. I bumped into a young black man and said “My bad.” Without even looking up he said, “You straight.” And in that exchange there was so much of the private rapport that can only exist between two particular strangers of this tribe that we call black. In other words, I was part of a world. And looking, I had friends who too were part of other worlds– the world of Jews or New Yorkers, the world of Native Americans, or a combination of any of these, worlds stitched together like a tapestry. And though I could never, myself, be a native of any of these worlds, I knew that nothing so essentialist as race stood between us” (Coates 119-120).I chose this passage to comment on because I found it to be one particular idea in this book that Coates did not communicate well. I honestly found his example to be ridiculous. The idea that the world– and we could even boil it down to the United States– is full of cultures not formed simply out of race but out of things like communities or religions is an idea that I agree is a beautiful and interesting thing. I mainly had a problem with the example he used, he recounts the situation as though no one from another race or culture or whatever would be able to communicate the same way with that man in his story. Or maybe he was trying to say that the man wouldn’t have communicated with him that way in the first place if Coates wasn’t black. This example presents an idea of exclusivity that isn’t the same beautiful as the shared traditions of Jewish people or the shared way of life of a New Yorker. There are ideas of African-American culture in America that would much better represent the unique aspects of the black community that are there. Sometimes the way Coates talks about these things that don’t necessarily have to do with racism but cultural differences is so exclusive, and he seems to intentionally exclude white people. Everyone everywhere is a part of a culture that is often unique and beautiful, and Coates feels the need to attribute a common culture to all black people and not do the same for the entirety of any other race. Maybe this is justified because black people have been discriminated against based on their race alone, and maybe he sees that as the reason why they have developed a culture that is uniquely and exclusively their own.

1. In the first section of Part II, Coates describes the way he learned about Prince Jones’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. Choose one of the following ways for approaching this section and write 5-8 sentences in response.
   1. Option 1: Prince Jones was a college friend, but after his killing Coates says he was “the superlative of all my fears” (81). Make at least one text-to-text connection to explain how Jones becomes emblematic of Coates’ fears. Which fears?

In this section, Coates reveals many of his fears and especially those that were added or simply heightened in the welcoming of his son into the world. But Coates’ most profound fear was leaving Samori without a father. As fatherlessness is one of the biggest issues facing black Americans today, Coates greatly feared Samori becoming a victim of this tragedy. That he would, as Prince was, be “not killed by a single officer so much as he was murdered by his country and all the fears that have marked it from birth” (Coates 78). In an elaborately detailed view of what the police could take away from black people unjustly, Coates writes:

“And the plunder was not just of Prince alone. Think of all the tuitions for Montessori and music lessons. Think of the gasoline expended, the treads worn carting him to football games, basketball tournaments, and Little League. Think of the time spent regulating sleepovers. Think of the surprise birthday parties, the daycare, and the reference checks on babysitters. Think of World Book and Childcraft. Think of checks written for family photos. Think of credit cards charged for vacations. Think of soccer balls, science kits, chemistry sets, racetracks, and model trains. Think of all the embraces, all the private jokes, customs, greetings, names, dreams, all the shared knowledge and capacity of a black family injected into that vessel of flesh and bone. And think of how that vessel was taken, shattered on the concrete, and all its holy contents, all that had gone into him, sent flowing back into the earth. Think of your mother, who had no father. And your grandmother, who was abandoned by her father. And your grandfather, who was left behind by his father. And think of how Prince’s daughter was now drafted into those solemn ranks and deprived of her birthright- that vessel which was her father, which brimmed with twenty-five years of love and was the investment of her grandparents and was to be her legacy.” (Coates 81 and 82)

This passage is so long but it completely encompasses the capacity of what killing a man, a father can take away from a family. Coates describes how he wouldn’t want any of the love, time, work, energy, money he puts into his son to be exterminated in a single moment in an act of ignorance. I find it strange how Coates is so disheartened by all of the plunder of material wealth that was invested into the life of Prince Jones. It is as if he disagrees with the notion that these things still had value and purpose in Prince’s life even though it was cut short so tragically and suddenly. It is as if he’s saying that all of those things were spent for nothing, which I would disagree with. In conclusion, Coates is terrified of the possibility that everything he has put into Samori and will put into him, will go to waste in a single moment, the way that it occurred with Prince Jones. 

4. Offer ONE SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE you will be prepared to read and offer as a vehicle for class discussion. Quote the passage and write a few sentences explaining WHY you chose it and WHAT you’d like us to discuss in it.

“I was out of sync with the city. I kept thinking about how southern Manhattan had always been Ground Zero for us. They auctioned our bodies down there, in that same devastated, and rightly named, financial district. And there was once a burial ground for the auctioned there. They built a department store over part of it and then tried to erect a government building over another part. Only a community of right-thinking black people stopped them. I had not formed any of this into a coherent theory. But I did know that Bin Laden was not the first man to bring terror to that section of the city. I never forgot that. Neither should you.” (Coates 86-87). 

I chose this passage because Coates talks about something I never knew or thought about. I have never thought about the city of Manhattan and been reminded of the historically racist and inhumane actions of auctioning off slaves or burying them there. This passage heightened my curiosity to the point of researching the Manhattan Slave Market and it is definitely a well-known fact about the city to its inhabitants. There, at one time, was a slave market on the corner of Pearl Street and Wall Street in New York City where black bodies would be sold.

I found it interesting how this knowledge causes Coates to look at the situation of September 11th in a much different light than I’ve heard the majority think of it. What I would like to discuss is whether or not it seems that Coates is suggesting that industrial America is trying to cover up the darkness of Manhattan’s history by building “a department store over part of it and then tried to erect a government building over another part” (Coates 87). That fact within itself can be used as a metaphor by Coates to say that America and it’s government have been built on the oppression of black people as our government buildings are sitting on top of their buried bodies. Coates goes as far to say that Manhattan was “Ground Zero” for the African-American race. “Ground Zero” is a term used in reference to the ruins of the World Trade Center site. Therefore, it can be assumed that Coates is saying that Manhattan is also the site of the ruins of the African race, or at least their freedom. This informative section by Coates raises the question of what other important dark histories lie under the foundation of America and are yet to be discovered. 

1. The Mecca: Why does Coates refer to Howard University as his Mecca? What does he mean by “the crossroads of the black diaspora” (40)? In your explanation, be sure to include a quote from Coates.

In this section, Coates is alluding to many different religions; Islam, Christianity, Judiasm; and their most sacred territories in this world. He refers to the Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city of Islam as it was the birthplace of Muhammad and the direction in which any Islamic should pray. He refers to Israel, a holy land of historical sanctuary from enemies and the nation of God. Most significantly, Coates is using the terms in reference to his beloved college, Howard University. He talks about his blissful memories of being there and seeing so many different black people, “[…] I saw everything I knew of my black self multiplied out into seemingly endless variations” (Coates 40). Another thing about Mecca is that it is a well-known tradition that every Islamic person must make the journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Coates refers to Howard University as ” the crossroads of the black diaspora” (Coates 40) which suggests that every black person has made their way to Howard University at least once in their lifetime. It suggests that it is a pitstop African-Americans should make before dispersing themselves across America. Toni Morrison, whom Coates mentions along with many other historically famous black people, attended Howard University before moving onto Cornell University and her promising future in writing. To sum it all up, Howard University is Coates’ Mecca, as well as the Mecca of pretty much every other successful black person. The social aspect of Howard University is sacred ground for black people according to Coates, “[…] crafted to capture and concentrate the dark energy of all African peoples and directly into the student body” (Coates 40). 

2. Coates writes of his “working theory” (46) and “imagining history to be a unified narrative” (47). Why might this have been important for Coates? What did he find or realize in his investigation? In your response, be sure to provide textual evidence from Coates. Note: we’re exploring together; it’s ok not to have all the answers, the right answer, etc.

Coate’s “working theory” is derived from Chancellor Williams’s Destruction of Black Civilization about the “multi-millennial European plunder” and the history of black royalty. The historical luxury and power that black people originated from in Nubian culture and Ancient Egypt, seemed to confort Coates. His “working theory then held all black people as kings in exile” (Coates 46), which conveys that the history of black origins that he delved into revealed that black people were once a “leading” people in the world until they were ripped away from their culture and their nation was destroyed. Coates claims that he still is able to see the beauty that originated from this time of royalty and through the diaspora. In his research, Coates learned with the goal of developing and internalizing a “unified narrative, free of debate, which, once uncovered, would simply verify everything I had always suspected” (Coates 47). There would be no more guarding or hiding of the truth in history. Historically significant people or groups who did bad things would be recognized for those bad things just as much as they are recognized for the good they did, “the smokescreen would lift” (Coates 47). Coates hoped for a historical narrative of truth that could not be argued, that everyone could agree on and accept. This connects to today’s ideas of exposing the wrongs of historical figures and cancel culture.   

3. Your burning question: Help us examine some specific part of Coates’ text by offering a Quotation, providing a 3-4 sentence Comment on it, and asking a Question that follows from the quote and/or comment.

In the section about Coate’s “working theory”, he makes many statements that I find troubling. When discussing the history of black royalty he shares that, “when the Dutch ambassador tried to humiliate her by refusing her a seat, [Queen] Nzinga had shown her power by ordering one of her advisers to all fours to make a human chair of her body. That was the kind of power I sought, and the story of our own royalty became for me a weapon” (Coates 45). Throughout the whole book Coates is condemning white people before their historical tendency to “break the black body”, as he should, but that is especially why I find these statements to be evidence of hypocrisy. Coates demonizes societal hierarchies, and is yet praising a historical high class individual for using her status and power to subject someone she deems less than herself to act as a chair, an object, so that she can sit. Plunder of the body, if you will. I write about this to simply make sense of it to myself, and I still can’t say that I have developed a good understanding of what Coates really means. Later on, Coates concludes this section by proposing the question, “had any people, anywhere, ever been as sprawling and beautiful before?” (Coates 46). This question raises the idea of comparison among peoples which is the race as the child of racism that Coates talks about earlier. Coates’ question is clearly one with goodhearted and sentimental intentions, one that conveys his connection to “his people”. However, Coates is also conveying the idea that different types of people can be attributed with greater beauty than other people, which in a way contradicts ideas of equality. All of this causes me to question Coates’ intentions in writing this book. Is it advocating for equality or the condemnation of race? Coates doesn’t seem to propose any hopeful solutions, so is this work simply written to shine a light upon how racism has impacted him through his experiences and the conclusions he has come to as a result? As a white woman reading this book, I don’t feel like I am the intended audience, and I have a hard time contradicting anything Coates states because I can’t speak from the perspective of a black person. This makes it difficult for me to respond to this writing with anything but empathy while trying to ignore my underlying speculation about the truth behind some of Coates’ claims. Although this book wasn’t written for me, it is enlightening to hear how many black people have felt the weight of the historical oppression of their people and how they make sense of it.