Extra Credit: Attack on the Capitol
In his 1963 essay “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin wrote: “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
Respond to this quote and free-write about any questions or feelings you are having about what happened at our Capitol yesterday or any other issues you want to discuss.
America is really divided right now. It was really sad and disappointing about what happened yesterday. As I watch the news and I went on twitter to say people's opinion on the matter I realized how divided we are. People tend to compare what happened yesterday and what happened during the summer. To be honest in my opinion, you should not compare the two because first off the BLM protest was people fighting for a life and what happened yesterday is just people not taking in the fact that they lost. But the most disappointing part is that this is mostly because of the president, he needs to grow up and be responsible and stop lying to his people. If he keeps on with this, it will have a bad look on the country. With the quote I agree because anything can happen here in America, it might be something good or bad, you never really know what's coming next.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Abby, Donald Trump has to grow up and has to stop lying to his people. Donald Trump is the reason why it all happened :/....
DeleteI strongly agree with the " terrible" part because of all of the horrible things have happened in the past and now. There have been so many terrorist attacks, school shooting, lynchings of Black people, genocides, deaths, and injustice in this country that it's hard for me to call the American history "beautiful". What happened yesterday in the Capitol honestly made me laugh. But I don't think it was a happy laugh. I was just so baffled by this event that I couldn't help but laugh. It didn't seem real to me at all, I felt like I was watching a TV show of clowns running around the capitol. This country is a mess and I don't think I will ever call myself an American.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, it made me laugh and I was embarrassed for our country..... But I would also like to say there American is beautiful despite all the bad events that have happened. That's my opinion. But I strongly agree with everything you said.
DeleteI agree with you because for the past year I feel like I have been not proud to be an American. After what happened yesterday, I am fully embarrassed to be in a country like ours.
DeleteI feel that he is stating that although American history is one of the most beautiful, exciting and interesting, it also has a darker and more haunting side. The beautiful side of American he is referring to are the goals and accomplishments of Americans. But the terrible side he is referring to is the racism that has been around for many years. What happened yesterday was an embarrassment to our country, but showed us what white privilege is. White privilege should not be a thing, African Americans are capable of doing what white people do. Anyone can, you just have to work for it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Rebeca. Even though our country has a long beautiful history, there has been so much darkness under it. Especially after seeing the events that occurred yesterday with racism. It was so disturbing to see how clear it was that white privilege exists right in front of the whole world yesterday.
DeleteAs I was watching the news yesterday, I felt so embarrassed to be an American. It was so disgusting seeing how people were acting over the results of an election. People are so blinded by Trump that they believe in everything he says. It was even worse seeing how the president reacted to the situation. He did not try to control it and if anything he encouraged it. The worse part of yesterday was how the police reacted to it. The police did not seem to care at all. This is crazy because when the BLM protest occurred, the whole army came down trying to protect the government buildings. However in yesterdays situation, the police were standing around letting the people get into the Capital building. These people were holding confederate flags which represents racist ideology. It's so embarrassing living in this mess of a country.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is very embarrassing to see what went down and the fact that it is the capital and was not guarded and people easier went through really look bad on us. To me it felt like the police just welcomed them in.
DeleteJames Baldwin wrote: “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it” and I agree with that statement. To become the "land of the free," "home of the brave," the "beacon of democracy," and the "most powerful country in the world" the nation has endured many many moments of injustice, bloodshed, and chaos, but the nation has also lived through many many times of rejoice, pride, and success. As all students come to learn during their schooling career, American history can be absolutely chaotic and horrendous at times, while it can be so beautiful and heartwarming in others. No nation is built just like that. Especially not the nation which many regard as the most powerful and the best of all. The founding of this nation was a result of bloodshed, the development and building stages of this nation was on the backs of the exploited and chained Africans, and throughout the whole history of the nation these motifs have been omnipresent. Beautiful even have been omnipresent as well, whether it was the foundation of this nation with the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the freeing of slaves from their shackles, the planting of the flag on the moon and so much more. American history is a rich history, a history filled with enough stories and events to dedicate a life time to. From a historical perspective, it is beautiful and mesmerizing. What happened yesterday at the Capitol was a shameful event that will surely go down in the "terrible" side of American history. A time of chaos, extreme divide in the nation, and extreme divide in political factions. It will go down in the history books and will become one of the negative events in history, an event that will be looked back upon by many historians and students of the future generations. As time progresses, that history book just grows more and more on both the "terrible" and the "beautiful" sides, and that is what makes American history so rich and such a fascinating study!
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ReplyDeleteAfter seeing what happened at the Capital, I am embarrassed and disappointed on what this country has become. It shows the lack of maturity that most people have especially our President, who had the power to stop this horrible event from happening. This event was the visual representation of white privilege because the guard barely did anything to stop this violent riot from entering the building. Comparing this to the BLM protest you can see the injustice acts of the police towards people due to their color skin. James Baldwin says that our history is full of negative and proud moments and this event will be on a negative moments.
DeleteI agree because with the quote James Baldwin. Because in America History there was many accomplishment to make what America great today that what it was describes as "longer, larger, more various, more beautiful." But there is also terrible part of America like racism, school shooting and etc. What happened to the capital was honestly stupid and funny of how those pro-Trump was being a sore loser not accepting the defeat. The people doesn't realize that Trump is making America worst. And the people is what making America look terrible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Chenyi b/c I feel like the people in charge isn't seeing it how we see it they just want to make the president happy but their needs to be consequences to his and everyone of their actions.
DeleteThis quote is inspirational and what I believe Baldwin is alluding to is that in American history it has a trail of proud, memorable, or horrifying moments. Our history is anything but clean, true, or honest. I agree with this quote because America was built on the backs of other people and if you really dissect moments wars or even instances from our history books you can notice that it has never been a fair game played. One mass of people loss and the other won. Someone was always losing something in American history , someone was always gaining something at the expense of others. In the end of the quote I think Baldwin is all using to that nothing anyone can say about American history; good or bad is nearly relevant or as worse as it actually was. The events that happened at the different times in our history is far more worse than our opinions, how we teach it, or how we can describe it. In honesty, our opinions or views are meaningless and worthless in comparison to the truth and what had actually happened. However, we would never truly know that unless we ourselves go through it. -LANA SANTIAGO
ReplyDeleteAmerica has a complicated history, it is a nation that unites a variety of people from the world. The history of the land we are living in is longer and larger than we expected, the diversity created all the beautiful and significant stories in the past. But everything has both sides, what happened yesterday might be considered as a dark mark in the history book, no one will think about this kind of awful thing will happen, it reveals the defect of the nation and how we are all embarrassed to let this happen in our country. We experienced too many dramatic events in the past year, it seems like the U.S. is going into an extreme way. There Are people standing up and fighting against racism, and made the diversity a beatfiltering in the history, meanwhile there are people who are lack of education and supporting white privilege trying to discredit the country. We all believe America still has a long way to go, but what James Baldwin is saying is that there’s no words to define the American history, no one can predict the way we are going and all of us are probably witnessing a historical turning point right now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what James Baldwin wrote b/c he's saying that their is much more to Americas history that we may not know. Their has been so much that we have seen as of now but their is still a lot more to come and a lot more to learn about our history. As of what happened at the Capital I feel like that could've been avoided but it wasn't and it shows how diverse the world is b/c I feel like if that was African Americans we wouldn't even had made it up the steps. When we we're peacefully protesting we were getting attacked but they were allowed to get all the way into the capitol and take pictures with the police officers as if it was nothing.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of truth to this quote because America history is very complex. Today, we are known to be greatest country in the world and known to give the greatest opportunity to our citizens. Somehow, we still face many problems like mass incarnation, wealth inequality, voter suppression and more. In other countries, people don’t have to deal with the problems we face to certain extent. In addition, it’s clear that our country history is tainted with slavery, oppression, and the land we live on was stolen through genocide. In spite of all that, it is amazing how this country was able to move forward and rewrite its past. By passing new legislation that would accept immigrants, all races, and all sexual orientations, America leads the way for other countries to support human rights and equal opportunities. The rioters at the capital may have tried to stop the progress this country has made to fulfill their selfish wishes. But this country is known to keep moving forward and expanding equality and democracy for all.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with this. America sells itself as an exceptional country that provides equal opportunity for all to succeed; it sells itself as a meritocracy; a beacon of democracy and freedom that stands out from the rest of the world. It holds itself to high prestige and measures itself based on high expectations that is oftentimes does not fulfill. Reality is much harsher, more unequal, a lot less free that we like to believe--or America likes to believe--and if we want to hold ourselves to this ideal, we must actively make an effort to realise this ideal.
DeleteI agree with james bladwin because i feel like people talk about america they want to make it seem like america is this big great country and that we have the best demoeracy and nothing bad goes on. When the reality of that is america is probably one of the worst countries and i say this because of everything that goes on, the racism with black people and latinos , the school shooting that have been happening , the hate crimes towards the Lgtb+ community and so on i could go on and on but i wont. America is known as the country with great opportunity but in my eyes that seen as lie because the people that first get those great opportunity are white people even though latinos come and work their butts off to earn that opportunity but still don't get it. There so many examples like that one that show why america is not the "greatest country" in the world. People don't talk about the reality of everything which makes other people native toward america
ReplyDeleteI agree with the quote because American history is truly complex. As he says, it is more vast, beautiful, and terrible than anyone has thought about. Many of the atrocities of America has been downplayed and its history is not taken into account with regards to modern day issues such as racial justice and police brutality. In the Capitol attack, we saw the culmination of a population of people that has been sold the false narrative of election fraud peddled by the Trump administration to which, once they felt their agency and power has been totally lost, lashed out in an unmediated anger and stormed the Capitol. It is not just the actualisation of a deep ressentiment, but is also a reminder of how deeply divided our country is. It is not just political disagreement we face in modern America--for that, we must have some established, agreed-upon narrative for reality such that we all agree on what the problems are but not just their solutions--but instead we have a fundamental disagreement on the very reality we live in. There is a divide within America upon the very idea of truth, what is truthful, who is being lied to, etc., etc., which is exemplified by Trump's "fake news" narrative that breeds this radical, contradictory scepticism and almost cult-like behavior towards Trump. He must absolutely be held indirectly responsible and face consequences.
ReplyDeleteIt it clearly proven that there is a lot of truth to this quote because of the history behind America. For years we have been known to be considered the greatest country in the world and to have the greatest opportunities available for the citizens. However, this isn't all true because America's history has a lot of atrocities to it even to this day. We have numerous ongoing issues that have yet to be solved such as racism, poverty, police brutality and the list keeps going. To add onto this, with the history of the US we specialize in acting like the victims knowing we have caused more than half the problems we have faced. But, I can say that we thrive a lot with our work ethic and uniting when it comes to very large issues for example, the BLM protests. But, not all of it is beautiful and not all of it is bad. The reality of America needs to be discussed for it's true colors and not be sugarcoated.
ReplyDeletehistory for america is almost always ugly and the injustice shows and aalso that america is divided and we need to come together. also when blacks protest its not the same as when white riots do it. we are treated different and it shows as a country we should be ashamed attacking our own capital the people's building.
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