Over the two months, we have talked about various kinds of issues such as race, climate change, GMOs, and extinction. Among the many readings we’ve read, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omeals” stands out since the main idea of Ursula is to “leave” the situation. She does not illustrates how to save the poor child and also she does not blame the people in the town as she says that “One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt. But what else should there be?”(Ursula, p.2) This point of view can be adapted to many situations we’ve discussed. If each of us realize that how stupid it is to discriminate people by their color? If each of us uses less amount of electricity? If each of us avoids eating GMO food?  

Dear Mr. Van Jones,

I think that Van Jones' effort to include underprivileged kids in the fight for climate change is admirable. The way that he uses his upbringing to inspire the highschool dropouts (who probably weren't given much support through their academic lives) is significant in that he gives them a cause to fight for. While I don't necessarily agree that it is their responsibility to incite change (as this is like saying it is the job of the minority groups to fight racism). it makes sense that Van Jones wants to include the underprivileged population in the fight against climate change. After all, they are usually the ones who are the first to feel the effects of environmental issues (both the destruction and the prevention of them).

Alison

ESem Paper #9 (3rd draft)
November 15, 2015

“Exotic” and “Native”

My first draft started with several questions on Momoko and her “exotic” identity. I wondered what is the real meaning of  “exotic” and how does people use it to define others. With the more exploration and deeper analyses of Momoko and Yumi, I was convinced that people should not be defined as exotic or native by its origin, instead, they should be defiance by the connection to a place. 

I enjoyed the public talk given by Mr. Vázquez a lot and I thought it provided me more perspectives to look at the environmental studies. I was surprised by the data presented at the beginning showing that Latino suffer from the rugged environment. I liked his idea to put the Latino and the environmental problems into a conversation and connect social justice with ecocriticism. The idea that the Latino do not care about environment is misleading as they are the people who suffer from these issues is interesting. Even though I have not read the book he talked about, I did not feel completely confused or lost because he gave comprehensive introduction and he cited many sentences to explain and analyze.

for our thurs. 11/12 lesson plan @RCF, madison and i talked a bit about the ways that the previous week’s barometer exercise got people a bit more involved. we struggled to come up with exercises around the idea of personal narratives...  i liked how we tried to toss around ideas as a whole group in class — everyone had great ideas, and nell helped a lot with the creation of the ways i thought about the lesson plan and the concepts i think that madison, rosa, and i were going for. i hope we continue to make this a bit more of a group process as we move forward.

two major things that i also got out of it for future planning:

When I entered the room for Mr. Vázquez's talk, I was fully prepared to listen to a lecture based on the environment with a focus on environmental justice. Instead, Mr. Vázquez’s presentation was solely an analysis of Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus. My reaction to this was kind of like when you order a Sprite and take one sip and it turns out to be water instead. It’s not that you don’t like drinking water, it’s just that your taste buds were expecting Sprite, and the water is just kind of a letdown and you end up being confused and upset.  This is how I felt about Mr. Vázquez's talk. Not having read Under the Feet of Jesus, I was just sort of lost and confused.  

I really enjoyed Vasquez's talk about environmental justice regarding the latinx migrant worker community and how that is represented in literature. What I found really interesting was the representation of people of color in environmental studies and literature pre-Rachel Carson's silent spring that I never learned about. I was never really interested in environmental studies but realizing that environmental activism requires intersectionality makes the movement not just more inclusive, but also that it needs to be centered on people and communities that experience environmental degradation to the greatest extent. In addition, the idea from the presentation that oppression often obscures itself definitely applies here.

"I was seeing kids at Yale do drugs and talk about it openly, and have nothing happen to them or, if anything, get sent to rehab," he said. "And then I was seeing kids three blocks away, in the housing projects, doing the same drugs, in smaller amounts, go to prison. (p3)"

I.

I'd like to begin by taking some time to talk about the attacks in Paris on Friday. While this may seem afield of our readings and recent discussions, I think these events actually raise a number of themes we've been examining all semester: violence and force in society; forgiveness; the idea of prefiguration and non-violence; and, most generally, how logics of crime and punishment (and retribution) structure so much of our world. Think of the language in response: the attacks were "barbaric" according to Obama and Pope Francis; Francois Hollande, the President of France, declared that ""France will be merciless towards these barbarians.” 

If you have time, I'd suggest looking at the following two articles for alternative responses to the events: