NO! Rape video

In class we watched a video that talked about rape, they went over statistics and talked about the details and psychological aspects of rape and the false assumptions about rape.

I said in class the thing that I felt was the most powerful was the stories told by two women who talked about their experiences with rape or attempted rape. I won't retell the stories as I couldn't do them justice, but hearing the experience from someone else was erie and it gave me more realism that this is a big issue and it's something that should never happen to anyone.

Interview 2

This is an interview with and elderly lady I know that talked to me about what her life was like growing up.

What is your name?

Roncque Applebee

Where did you grow up?

New Albany, Mississippi

What were your parents names and occupations?

Marques and Deola Applebee

Do you have any siblings? Yes or No, names?

No siblings

What was your life like growing up as a black girl in New Albany?

I grew up in a small house in the middle of nowhere, today there’s traffic and houses everywhere but when I grew up my surroundings changed, my school changed, I had my first encounters with white people when my father would get gasoline for his car, I noticed that white people looked different than my family did but I didn’t ask about it.

Did you ever encounter racism? Explain?

It started when I was in school, I would be called the N word but I didn’t understand it at my age yet, I grew up trying to be respectful but I felt I received no respect

What, if anything, do you remember your parents telling you about race?

I talked to my parents about it when I started school, I had not been around that many white kids,  

What did your parents tell you or instill in you regarding being a woman, specifically a black woman?

I remember one day that I came home and I was sad because I had been made fun of and looked down upon by whites, my mother told me there was nothing wrong with me and that they just didn’t understand, it was a large misunderstanding of people, I did the best I could to not let it get to me.

Did you graduate and attend college?

In high school I met a guy named Dennis, we got married a year or two later, I wondered what I should have done then but I became the stay at home wife so no I didn’t go to college.

Did you have any children?

Dennis and I had two kids and they’re about to finish college themselves now, I felt it was my duty as a woman to have children and to have a family, I knew if I had kids that they may have to go through the same sort of things I did, but that was after blacks had their rights so I knew it would be a better life for them than me.

What do you think about people dating outside of their race?  Black men marrying white women and black women marrying white men?

I’m not really for it, races should stay their race, they have disagreements but neither side is wrong or right they just need to stay in their place and respect the other race for who they are.

  What issues do you think most affect black Americans today?

Today Obama has a lot on him, I don’t necessarily agree with all his decisions, he is setting an impression for all black people that are judged wrongly by his decisions.

Interview 1

 I had an interview with a lady I know that helps me take care of some things at her hospital, I asked her a few questions about growing up as a black woman.

What is your name?

Dorothy Walker

Where were you born?

Ripley, Mississippi

Where did you grow up?

Memphis, Tennessee

Do you have any siblings?

I have two siblings, Marcus and Telisha.

What was your life like growing up as a black girl in Memphis, Tennessee?

I grew up with my brother and sister in our Uncle’s house outside of town,  we didn’t have much back then, it was in the 1970’s we didn’t even have a T.V. until I was fifteen years old.

Did you ever encounter racism? Explain?

When I grew up there was obvious tension between races, I never encountered many problems but it felt there was an unwritten rule that if we didn’t bother one another then there would be no problems.

 What do you remember your parents telling you about race?

My parents died in a car crash when I was eight, I was taken in by my uncle and aunt, they told me that I may be seen differently from others but that didn’t make me less important, when I was older and I started dating my Uncle became very clear that I was not to date a white boy, I didn’t really ask why I just did as I was told.

Did you attend school?

I went to an all black school but it changed to a mixed school when I was in the 8^th grade, and I graduated in 1982.

Talk a little bit about those days...

Well when the school became mixed there was some confusion and we didn’t get along at first, I was cautious of those white boys because they would give me looks or talk to me in a way that made me feel uncomfortable, eventually I realized they didn’t mean any harm.

Did you graduate and attend college?

I graduated college and I am a nurse at the hospital I work for.

So what is your official title? You’re a bachelor of what?

I’m not sure what it’s called now since that was about 30 years ago but I think now it’s a Bachelor of Science in Nursing

What it was like living as a black woman? 

I’ve met some patients as a nurse and some of them have given me a hard time, most of them are older men and most men that have given me a harder time are white, black men seem more kind to me, I think it really depends on the person because I’ve met either black or white men that are rude or kind.

Are you friends with white women?  

I’m friends with a few white women, I have more black friends than white friends, I figured that was normal for most people.

 What type of relationship do you have with black men or white men?

I’m more attracted to black men than white men, I think it just makes sense seeing as how I’m a black woman, I don’t think races should get together unless their truly in love and that’s it.

Nikki-Rosa

Poetry's not my thing even though I'm a English minor, most the poetry I read I'll come to a conclusion and my professor will tell me something totally different, but here I go anyways:

my analysis is of a black person recollecting events in the past that outweigh the happy moments, but at the end she says Black love is black wealth, meaning they were rich because they were happy that they were together despite all the hard times being a black person in that time.

I think it's a symbol of hope that yes things were bad, they could be much worse, and that she was able to get past the bad and that white people wouldn't understand that because they don't treasure the same things.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

I read about this when I was in high school and I remember that a black woman would not give up her bus seat for a white man which got her arrested, and that led to a move by black people to stop riding the bus for a while which led to a huge loss of money by the company. I think that Rosa Parks not giving up her seat took a lot of courage for that day and age when there was white dominance. 25,000 black people rode buses at that time, and like everyone they had to pay to ride, losing thousands of customers was a wake up call that was effective by eliminating the rule that blacks must give up their seats for whites.  I believe this was the first step of how the Civil Rights movement began.

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights movement was a separation of black and whites such as separate dinning rooms, restaurants, drinking fountains, ect. This lead to Civil Rights groups such as SCLC, SNCC, and eventually the Civil Rights acts. This was a interesting time for America as things were changing, people were able to speak out about what they believed such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and people were listening and demanding freedom. I think figures like Malcolm X and MLK were speaking in a way that even white people agreed with and they knew that they had to be good examples so people would take their words seriously, I think that was very important as they wanted to create unity between the races.

The Great Migration

The Great Migration seemed liked something that was a logical thing to happen, as the numbers of deaths and lynching grew so did the desire to leave a place that was targeted to blacks, another reason being the work and labor efforts were getting worse to where people worked long hours with hardly any pay. The main destinations for migrators were Washington, Pittsburg, and Chicago, areas that were north had jobs available for them by labor agents, labor agents recruited southern workers.