The other america

After reading this book, i felt that i could really relate to what Harrington had to say. I am from a small rural town and compared to most places many of the people that lived around me would be considered to live in poverty if it was really looked at. I agree that poverty is over looked by many people. Living in a rural community i see that a lot of people do live without the greatest things in life but they make the best of what they have. I think that poverty is just a matter of it you have money or not, but if you make the best of what you have then why does it matter how much money you have or how nice you clothes are. Money cant really make people happy it is what you do with what you have that really makes you happy.

Many people around my rural community may live in trails or run down houses but with the area i live in people don't really see that. They see the natural beauty of what our community has to offer. The rural communities are filled with many of the homes that Harrington described in is book are many of the homes that i would see in the community that i live in and many of the surrounding communities.

I feel that if there was not such a gap between upper, middle and lower class that this would not be such and issue. But the upper class is not willing to give up anything and the middle and lower class are continually being forced to give up something or having there jobs taken away from them.

While reading this book it was obvious that there was racial and gender discrimination going on at this time. At one point in this book i found where there was racial discrimination was with the SNCC worker. The SNCC worker had endured nearly three years of savage and continuous repression just to challenge teh most unrentantly racist state of the old Confederacey. He dealt with years of racism as he worked in these harsh conditions in Mississippi.

The beginnings of the Free speech movement and the Student Movement itself were a huge controversy at the time. I think that, once the people began to examine the issues that were put forth concerning equality in concern to sex and equality in general, they began to slowly understand the perspective that the African-Americans were coming from.

Im sure there are other things that dealt with racial and gender discrimination but I did not catch them all while reading it the first time. I would have to go back and reread the section to fully understand all of it.

So far while reading Freedom Summer I have found it a very interesting read. I think it shows that people in the worst times can really come together and help everyone around them no matter who or what the people around them are about. I was proud to live in Illinois when i read that because "we" have the ability to come together and unite when needed most. While reading this book I started to wonder what involvement women have in this as well. Did the women help to bring the movement into the home? It is well known that men did a lot to help with this movement but i wonder if women really had any part in this. I also think it is interesting that they had the courage to stand up to something that is so controversial, if they werent directly affect by what was going on? If there really a reason to why all these people got involved?

Thinking About Baldwin, Thinking About Today

I think that if Bladwin was to experience life now in the US, he would have a different feel for life here. It seems to me that now days people here are not as judgemental as what they have been in the past. I think that people are more accepting of the difference in people now because there are so many people and all of those people have there own differences. Also the people that are still very judgemental, negative or not accepting of those difference are not as liking to voice their opionion out loud or right to the person themselves. I think he would feel more part of America if he had lived here in this time

first response

Starting off school has been a lot different than expected, i am from a small town and springfield is a lot bigger than where i am from. In the classes that i have taken so far i have been a little dissappointed because they are not what I was expecting. I am having a hard time getting into Nobody Knows My Name, by James Baldwin, but I am continuing to read it. In the part that i have read so far it comes across as a negative book.