Mr. Donnell/ Dr. Stogdill
City of Angels
10 December 2015
Chutes and Ladders
Perhaps my privileged life with my Gucci sunglasses do not allow me to see this ladder they speak of because I am allowed to move on it freely. Why would I notice something I never encounter? I can't say the same for others, however. Sorry to disappoint you, and it is a secret I'll let you in on so don't share it with anyone, but my neighbors rungs have been sawed off. And my neighbor's neighbors rungs are missing too. In fact, millions of people in Los Angeles and the United States as a whole have ladders with broken rungs. How do they climb?
If He Hollers Let Him Go illustrates this ladder clearly through characters like Madge or the dirty white woman who entered the bar. White men are shown to be at the top of this ladder followed by white women, black men, and black women. The dirty white woman who has no power over a white man and who would be kicked out of any white person's bar for the ways she acted contrarily had incredible power to ruin the lives of the black people in the bar because she is simply a few steps higher on the ladder. As Bob put it, she was dirty and gross, "but she was white."
The outsiders who see the world without sunglasses, like Bob for example, notice the ladder sagging with the weight of minorities pushed to the bottom wrung. However, of the blacks in this novel, no matter how simple-minded or educated, like the people in Bob's dream or Alice and her parents, choose to not pay attention to the ladder because they have given up on accommodating to the white's ideal version of a black person. Elsie, Madge's sister in law, spoke of these types of blacks in Texas who keep to themselves and created their own society– their own ladder. On the other hand there is Alice and her parents who play into the game of chutes and ladders, believing that the next rung above them is just within grasp– one step closer to the white sunlight.
How do we fix the ladder or is it fixed today? In what ways have the ladder changed in Los Angeles since WWII? Bob says revolution, breaking the ladder and making a bonfire of it, is how to fix social mobility. Do you agree with this statement? How would you go about fixing the ladder if you believe it needs fixing?
Although we have made progress since Bob's WWII-era story, I believe the ladder still exists. Both racism and sexism are still prevalent in our society, yet I'm not sure how to fix that. If we in fact blew up the ladder and started over, new growth could arise. However, a violent revolution is not the same kind of explosion I'm talking about. In the course of history, wars/battles have been key turning points for shifts of power. So, how do we make this happen without carnage? In addition, the goal is to have equality for everyone, which in the past has not been the outcomes of aforementioned wars. In those, it is about merely handing off the power from one group to another. But if we're fighting for equality, there needs to be a way to destroy the ladder without destroying any actual groups. There needs to be a way to hand off the power to everyone, equally. Does that sound too idealistic for us to handle?
ReplyDeleteLast year we spent time in Davis' class analyzing structural racism. It became more and more frustrating learning all the forms this racism plagued. One day I would leave class thinking "I got it! We just have to give funding to education!" Then the next, it would be "Wait, first we have to deal with housing." This continued to a point where hopelessness seemed more useful than reading more depressing facts. However, that is just what must be done. On an individual level, it is my responsibility (as a straight, white, male) to keep learning how to be a better ally. I do think that raising taxes, specifically on the wealthier members of our society, to promote more social programs, more job creation, and better schools will help. I do think that decriminalizing smaller offenses and reforming the prison/judicial system in this country will help. Ultimately, however, I think it's about time we recognize privilege. A broad feat that starts with listening. Then echoing. Using our incredible privilege to give more support to the important voices around me. (And voting!!.... please vote.) The revolution can take whatever form it needs to take. But it will start with dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI liked everything Lucas said and would add that I really do think education is the biggest issue. People can say they have learned about racism in school but what if the whole system we have been learning in is racist and sexist in itself? I think our whole system of education needs a thorough reworking and of course more funding to become a thing that produces good people ready for society, not just those who are willing to see through all the madness. I have no idea where to start, but that is probably why it hasn't happened yet. Hopefully we can be the generation that really cuts the head off of racism once and for all and makes it something we only really hear about in the history books a century down the line.
ReplyDeleteThe ladder still exists, but minorities have been told it doesn't. Society tells us we are where we deserve to be and we must be grateful for where we are. Climbing a rung of the ladder is no longer the problem, but finding the ladder is.
ReplyDeleteDestroying the ladder won’t do anything, for they will just build another one. Our country was built on the very system Terra is talking about, and I am not confident in our country’s ability to abandon it. I do not know how to fix it. I don’t really think anyone does either. Maybe it’s not something you fix or destroy. It doesn’t seem that simple.
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ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about progress is that there isn't really "the generation." There is no singular group that accelerates reform or more drastically shifts mindsets. I suppose certain generations do it better than others, but the difference to me seems fairly minimal. The reason, in my opinion, is that few political movements can cross the generation gap. When you're young, you're "idealistic," which is just an oppressive institution's codeword for principled. But we young people are also self-absorbed; we gravitate toward our own problems. By the time we gain the perspective to see the status quo for what it is, to see what change is truly necessary, we have become so engrained and incorporated into the status quo that we no longer think any except the most "reasonable" (read gradual or placative) changes possible. Our principles are beaten out of us with a rubber hose until we remember fondly the naïve days when we thought the world could change. So we mass together in defeated unity to form a new status quo, one that looks remarkably similar to the old one. It is only our most deeply rooted beliefs, the "consciousness" that the white men could not beat out of Bob, that drive us toward change, but it is a dampened force, so change moves slowly. But change moves, change moves, and 50 years from now it won't matter what was possible, only what was done, and we might well be applauded or rather applaud ourselves as the generation that really made "progress."
ReplyDeleteAn Odd Town
ReplyDeleteOne thing my Glassell Park group has noticed is that there are no people about. It may just be the time of day we are going but I don't think that's the case, thats's not the feel I have gotten from walking around. There is a ton of car traffic but no foot traffic. Glassell Park seems to be a place that people pass through. If I were to go to Old Town on a Thursday afternoon it would be elbows to elbows people, but Glassell Park's main street is deserted. Furthermore it is split in three parts industrial, chain restaurants, and a school on the east side of the freeway, residential and more new gentrification to the west, and in the south an odd mix between the 2 a school, a park, and some weird zoning with industry, commercial, and residential in the same block.
From what my group has found out the demographics of the town is almost a 40/40 split between Asian and Mexican, and 20% left to other races. Our group has observed a primarily Mexican population. The place we stopped at today had about 6 taco joints within the span of 4 blocks. There are little Mexican markets on literally every corner. We wonder if there is any Asian influence on the community.
The odd town is an the cusp of exploding with gentrification. Houses towards the more hilly part of the town being flipped and sold for nearly 1 million dollars. We saw this as we drove through residential areas and on our second stop at a very hipster coffee/breakfast place. In addition, we noticed that there are all these buildings that are empty, sold some being remodeled, indicating a new occupant and businesses for the new occupants of these houses, people that want to live in Silver Lake but Silver Lake is getting too expensive.
I was wondering if y'all have noticed any presence or push to gentrification in you communities, or has gentrification already had it's way in your town? What do some of the residents of your communities think of the push towards Gentrification?
Racism and sexism is prevalent today and is still very strong in different communities. I think the first step, as others have mentioned, is education. Education is a powerful privilege we have been given because we have the knowledge and skills to be able to see the world's true colors, the good and the bad. We see both sides of the closed door, in order to open the closed door of racism and sexism we need to educated those who are unclear of the issue or who are clueless in this growing issue. But as other people have said as well I am not exactly sure how to fix this issue.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that before we started reading If He Hollers Let Him Go, we talked about the usage of the n word, and the point brought up most often was context. Specifically, how this racist term was more acceptable for the characters to use because "it was a different time"; however, as we have read farther into the book, I noticed that Bob's experiences are extremely relevant. With mass incarceration, low funding for schools with students of color, discrimination in the workforce, and police brutality thriving not only in Los Angeles but throughout the country, Bob's emotions and descriptions feel real and have context today. It's important for us to read this book with context of the time in mind as well as comparing the racism in the book to modern racism in Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteAs long as society is run by people there will always be a ladder. It is impossible to eliminate it. What isn't impossible is to replace the rungs of race, class, identity and creed with skill, merit, personality, and self. A violent revolution is not the way to accomplish this. Time and time again we have seen that fail through history. Passive aggressive comments on youtube videos and complaints about microagressions are not the way to accomplish this. Steady progress, enlightened thinking, and fixing economic and cultural problems are. As others have mentioned, education is the foundation of the solution, with housing, criminal law, and others making up the walls. No one should have to be ashamed for something they were born with, whether they are short, black, gay, white, pretty, or anything else.
ReplyDeleteAs a society we shouldn't need the eventual homogenization of the human race to solve our issues.
I feel that the only way to fix this "ladder" problem is to get rid of the ladder completely. This ladder mentioned in Terra's prompt leads to the end goal of being in the "white sunlight". The end of the ladder should not be white. It should not be black. It should not be brown. It should not be yellow. It should be a rainbow. And one should not have to use a ladder to reach this rainbow.
ReplyDeleteBut realistically, the ladder will always remain and the white sunlight will be at the end of the ladder simply because white equals power. America is made for the white man to succeed. I feel that when all white people recognize their "privilege", then we will be closer to fixing this ladder issue. Like Audrey said, education is key.
The ladder is most definitely not fixed today. It's really difficult to fix something that has been around from literally the moment this country was built Similarly, it's hard to fix the ladder when some minorities don't even believe they are worth the effort. I think a lot of this has to do with perception: from the moment they were born, white people and minorities are told that white people are above everyone else. However, people are slow to do anything because a) they believe this is how things should be and b) they have never known anything else. So, in a way, ignorance is a part of the problem. Of course, I'm making huge generalizations here, but people have grown up believing in the ladder - it has been engrained in their minds. This is why I believe that in addition to educating ourselves and others, the most we can do is to be aware of the ladder. Once we are aware, we can be more conscious of our thoughts and actions so that we don't keep perpetuating it. It will require a great deal of effort at first on everybody's part, but it would become the new norm as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI liked what Lucas described about educating people on the issues of the ladder. Does this mean educating everyone in America? Everyone in the World? How would this be done seeing as people would have the freedom to partake or not in this education revolution. Racism, sexism, and all the ism's are mostly still present in the modern world, and pose some of the most ornate societal problems to date. The fact of the matter is that it's nearly impossible to break down the ladder, and until everyone is both informed enough and intelligent enough to understand the problems the ladder will keep growing.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to Townsend's comment, the ladder will always exist. Humans are gradually moving towards the improvement of the values upon which this ladder rests, however. We have racially and sexually come a long way in a short amount of time. Mathematically speaking, on this trajectory, racism will not exist in 60 years. The issue is that we are not part of an equation. I contradict myself by stating that there will always be inherent factors of judgement that are not based on merit, intelligence, and work ethic that will define the construction of our social ladder.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there needs to be a ladder, but not the one that we notice today. Today we notice the ladder that deals with race and rankings among minorities and people of color vs. white people. I believe that bob is right in how this ladder should be destroyed, because I believe that it needs to be. But I also believe that there does need to be a ladder, a fair one, that is able to set aside race and is able to fairly rank people in terms of things such as class, job, wealth, etc. I'm not sure how "fair" this ladder would turn out to be, and I'm not quite sure if this one would work either, however it feels as though there needs to be some sort of ladder in order to have some sort of structure and order. Also, I think that the ladder we have today has changed greatly since WWII although it has not changed enough in the right ways for it to still be in existence and for me to be okay with it.
ReplyDeleteFor all the people who believe that the ladder will always exist, I strongly agree. The ladder to me is a direct comparison to authority and hierarchy that definitely isn't all based on color of skin as it was during Bob's time period, but nowadays socioeconomics is the key to rising up the ladder. I think this concept still has a lot to do with people wanting to be autonomic and not accepting the ranks of powers that exist in modern America. However, unlike the situation for black people in If He Hollers, I feel that race still deters minorities a lot but it will never block them from achieving what they want to do, as long as they put in insurmountable amounts of effort to break the now permeable wall of segregation.
ReplyDeleteAs Annie said, I think that it will be impossible to have a world or a society in which there is no ladder to climb or to slip back down. Our lives revolve around money and power and those are the physical representations of the ladder. However, as we can see from the very obvious and very real changes that have taken place in our society from the setting of If He Hollers to now, the ladder can change, can become more right, can become more friendly. Of course, the ladder will always be hard to climb, and that's not to say that race isn't a piece of the ladder anymore (it unfortunately is), it's just to say that the ladder has certainly gotten better, more tolerant, and more understanding. Who knows where that will put our ladder of the future? I personally don't believe that the ladder should ever be something that anyone can just mould to their desires, walking up and down freely. I do think that the ladder should be available to everyone, and that hard work and determination will push people to the top, while laziness, malevolence, and a lack of character will push them down.
ReplyDelete