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Vivian O’Bannon

Jody Cohen

Emily Balch Seminar: Changing Our Story

December 13, 2016

Politeness: Lack of Inclusion Does Not Mean Exclusion

Communication: Vaster than balance, and more complicated

“People will talk. Let them talk. I can bear it. I am a Beede so I can bear the people talking…. I guess what Billy do or don’t do, or what she get or don’t get, is no more than just part of the plan.” So reflects Roosevelt Beede, accepting the decisions of his willful, pregnant, unmarried niece, Billy. Roosevelt’s stiff lipped, resigned response to his family’s luck is typical of the characters in Susan Lori Park’s novel. Throughout ‘Getting Mother’s Body’ the poor, Texan family comments on what it means to be a Beede, as they travel to Arizona to retrieve the remains of Billy’s mother and the jewels supposedly buried with her. Indeed,  it does seem for most of the novel that the characters will retain their fated hard luck.

                How are people supposed to create change? Do we work hand in hand with government leaders or do we try to usurp them and try our hand at anarchy? With conflicting ideals and a society that seems to race for profit, it seems implausible for us to work with other groups towards a common goal. Even faced with the facts, many choose to ignore the dire state that the world is in. Throughout literature, common themes surrounding the lack of cooperation between governments, corporations, and individuals becomes common. Namely, it becomes strikingly obvious in both Collapse of Western Civilization and As the World Burns that the world is taking a severe downturn with its environmental health.

My 6-week project took the different individual identities at bryn mawr and compared them to the media's representation of those respective identities.  After interviewing many people of mixed ethnicities, I saw a pattern; people of mixed ethnicity have trouble identifying with their identities at the same time, and also don't feel that they identify wholly with one identity.  It is hard for bi/multi-racial people to feel completely understood by one side of their identity - like a half-japanese half-african person would not feel completely understood by another japanese person, or by another african person.

This project was very interesting and I felt that I found out a lot about the school that I had previously never even thought about. From here I may want to look into interacting with the Pensby Center more often, especially since I know that the people there are amazing. In addition, I think that there should be some more advertisement about student activism (besides within clubs) for things not only in BMC but in our communities and countries.

I will definitely share this information with the people we interviewed, but I also believe that some of this information should be shown to K. Cassidy.