Read over all the comments to Discussion 4.
COMMENT:
What would you conclude from the fact that almost all comments refer to the first text (the NYT article "When America Barred Italians."), with no references to other texts, either for comparison purpose or to reinforce a point:
1) That it really was the most impressive of all texts?
2) That most people took the easy way out and wrote a comment before doing the entire assignment?
I feel that the NYT article wasn't the most impressive, but it did offer an articulate account of a time when Italian weren't welcome in America. To the author's credit, she offered plenty of interesting details that stood out to the reader. For example, one small detail that stood out to me was how Italians celebrated the 1 year birthdays of children because it was rare for kids to live long lives. That's such a sad and fascinating detail to me. I guess it's easy to perceive it as an easy way out, but I think it was a very accessible piece of text.
ReplyDeleteI honestly felt that the NYT article was the most impressive. It is very current with what is happening in this country, and very relevant. I have questioned my whole life why Italian-Americans are xenophobes, and this article was poignant in its description of it. I think it provides information that not many people even realized or understand. Italian-Americans are now considered to be white, and are lumped in with all White Republicans. However, they have a unique history in coming to this country that should be understood. It's interesting to read about their transformation from being discriminated against to feeling like they are privileged because they are now considered white. It's quite disgusting. Personally, the other texts have not stood out to be as much. I don't think students are lazy. I think this NYT article truly gave all students enough to connect to on different levels. Even if they disagree with the article, they still learned factual information about Italian-American history.
ReplyDeleteKara, I completely agree that this article helped me understand more so why Italian-Americans have the stigma of being to themselves, and it was very interesting to read about how they went from being discriminated against as criminals to feeling privileged because they are considered "white."
DeleteHello Kara. I completely agree that this article provides many students, if not all, content to connect to. I, personally, was extremely drawn in with the last paragraph that related the article back to the Muslim and Mexican bans because I am a Muslim American. I have first hand felt the fear of deportation, although I am a citizen. No other text connected to me in the manner in which this one did. That is to no offense to other texts and media, of course. I still learned much about Italian-American history with the Black Hand, political hatred, and lynchings.
DeleteI think most of us chose this article because we're all immigrants. Either we came to this country, or our parents, or our grandparents. I'm sure all of our families have stories about their hardships coming into America.
DeleteI'm sure this connected with Kara (her girl) because her family is Italian. It's cool to see how today's political climate in her community stemmed back to this article.
I really enjoyed reading the NYT article, and it was the most impressive to me. I believe it was the most impressive because in the end of the article i was thrown a curve ball by the author relating it to what is currently happening to the Muslims and Mexicans in the US. I was not expecting that at all, and I loved how she related it back to that. I can completely see why it would look as if everyone was taking the easy way out, but I also do not think it was. For me specifically, it is easier for me to read and analyze what I'm reading instead of looking at pictures or cartoons. I get lost in the pictures and usually miss the point of them, but when reading I understand what is being told and I usually read it like a story. The NYT article was a well written and relatable article, I think that is why most of us chose it as the most impressive.
ReplyDeleteNicoletta, I had the same experience as you reading the NY Times article. I believe we are very much alike and may come from similar academic backgrounds in terms of our style of learning.
DeleteThe NYT article impressive me in many ways . I believe that article was the perfect insight to getting to understand the history of the Italian American . It was very detail and made a connection that kept my interest . I was able to read that article and compare it to the history of African American . The similarity was what made the article so interesting . Like they say to understand a people you must understand their history. This article was able to capture not all of the struggle of the Italian American but most of their struggles that explain why they are the way they are today . Their culture,their sense of the love for only their community and how strong their family bond is . For someone who never knew nothing about Italian American besides pasta and little Italy this article was a very interesting opening to what Italian America are really about and more .
ReplyDeleteSafiatou, I agree with you that the article was very detailed which made it intriguing and allowed us to make connections. I also compared it to the history of African Americans while reading and couldn't believe that their history is similar yet they are known to not have much relation with one another. I now see why they have such big and strong family bonds and even take first birthdays seriously.
DeleteI feel the majority of the class chose to comment on the NYT article "When America Barred Italians" mainly because it was such a shock to read about. I for one had no knowledge of the racism and poor treatment Italian-Americans faced upon immigrating to the United States. I also believe that the same went for many of us. I also believe that the majority of us discussed that article because it left a long lasting impression on us. The racism Italian-Americans faced is also something we are not taught, it isn't discussed; so the NYT article taught us all something new that occurred in our country. I also feel that the NYT article is one of the most important texts we have covered so far because it helps us understand that history and have a better understanding of Italian-Americans and what they have faced.
ReplyDeleteNayisha, the racism and poor treatment towards Italian-Americans that you mention was also covered in all other texts and media, although I understand why you chose the NY Times article to reference this week's lesson. The author had such a prose that drew the reader in, and while we learned similar or the same information in other parts of the assignment, this reading really stuck with us due to the author's choice of diction.
DeleteFrom everyone's response, it seems a lot of us have limited knowledge of Italian history being that its not taught during primary education. The NYT article has a high shock value detailing many disturbing traditions one after the next. An unsuspecting reader will naturally be overwhelmed which is the kind of content that usually sticks with a reader. So far, it has been the most impressive.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most students chose to write about the NYT article because it was the one that clearly summed up what the other articles and texts were talking about. I felt like it was a kind of summary of the other texts, cartoons, and articles we read, because it talked about the hard lives of Italians in Italy as discussed in Son of Italy, and then it went on to describe the hardships new Italian immigrants faced once they arrived in America, as discussed in the cartoons, the Web research,and the other materials we read. Therefore, it probably stuck in most students' minds as the clearest way to remember what happened, even after they read the other materials.
ReplyDeleteI believe most students chose the NYT article not because it was the easiest to complete before the due date but because it was probably the most straight forward. The cartoons would require some decoding and making an attempt to understand what was going on. The NY times article clearly told a story about Italians that not too many people were aware of. I also believe that many students probably realized that they can easily make comments about the NYT article because the article touches on topics that we had no idea of prior to this class and it also incorporated details about our present administration. This allowed a majority of my fellow classmates to identify with it the most.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It was easy to read as well as being very insightful
DeleteI think "When America Barred Italians" is, in fact, the most impressive of texts thus far because of the author's writing style and content. I do not think people took the easy way out and wrote a comment before completing the entire assignment. Had anyone taken that route, they would have posted their responses at the beginning of the week, rather than one day before the deadline.
ReplyDeleteI believe other texts were not referenced in Discussion 4 because the task asked "Among the texts you analyzed in the course so far, which ONE made the deepest impression? WHY?" From my experience, professors always word their questions very carefully and intend the directions to be followed word-by-word. Although I was highly inclined to refer to the political cartoons in my blog post, I was afraid that my answer may be considered "not following directions." I now realize that the professor prefers that students refer to other texts when speaking about one, and I should not be afraid to make the connections.
I thought that the NYT article was the most impressive. It was very intriguing to read about people of fair skin that experienced the same hardships as people of darker skin. It made me realize that sometimes the color of your skin isn't the sole issue. It may be the xenophobia of the society. People fear the unknown. But America is supposed to be a country where we welcome people from all culture and races and I think that it's crazy that we regularly reject that idea.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the NYT “When American Barred Italians” article was chosen by most of classmates because a lot of us probably did not know much about Italian history. We were shocked to find out what they went through and about their lives. Although this article was a very easy read, it taught us that black slaves were not the only people that went through the hardships and the racism that they went through. I also personally liked how the author tied how our society today is with Mexicans and Muslims with how the society was with Italians. I think a lot of the classmates probably found that very interesting. She also pointed out that Italian-Americans today shouldn't support the way our President wants to keep out those groups because a few decades ago their Italian ancestors were in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my other classmates. Most students chose this article because it was the text that relates most to our lives. Living in today's political climate, it's hard not to follow the news. We all know about our governments's policy about immigration - building a wall to block Mexican immigrants, or banning all Muslims from entering out boarders. We wrote about this article because it shined light on America's ugly past when it comes to immigration policy. We're not as free minded "melting pot" hippies as we thought the past was. America has been discriminating "the other" for centuries. It was sort of comforting to see that America once shunned Italians, because in my eyes, Italians are the norm. It makes me hopeful that one day Mexicans and Muslims will be normal in America.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my classmates. The NYT reading was very eye opening and showed the hardships that Italians faced to enter America. I believe that the article had many good points and facts that stood out to most of us and made the article memorable. I don't think students are lazy, I believe if you read the article there is a reason why it pops automatically in your head. I think the other articles didn't give us as shocking information as this NYT one did.
ReplyDeleteThe NYT reading made what we are learning come into context of the current stand point of society today. The NYT reading could very well have changed the minds of someone who agreed with the muslim ban not thinking it relative to people who look more like they "belong here". Agreed classmates and even myself did not compare it to other sources as a reason why but it was as if it was something that wasn't worth comparing because they were all completely different. None did what the NYT times article did by making it worldly relative.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most of my classmates and I chose the NYT article not because we took the easy way out, but because I believe most of us did not know any of this information. In middle school and high school you mostly learn about how African Americans were wrongfully treated in the United States and how the Jew were treated during the holocaust, but you never learn about how Italians were treated. We currently are living through a time where Muslims aren't welcomed and it allows us to make a connection to the article. The cartoons were also very intriguing, but it took some interpretation skills that people might not have been confident in, which may be why they chose to write about the NYT article.
ReplyDeleteFor me personally the article was not the most impressive. Considering that it was the first article, people might have taken the easy way out, but I feel that since it was the first article it might have made more of an impression on people. Usually when gaining more knowledge about something, people stick with the first thing they learn and add pieces to the puzzle as they learn more. The cartoons for example might have been able to help us understand how people viewed them, but the main impression would still come from the article. Also when talking about the cartoons, you would have to create your own meaning, or interpret what they meant, whereas in the article the main idea was there, you just had to react to it.
ReplyDeleteThe NYT article was probably the text of choice for most of my classmates, including me, for a number of reasons. The first being, it was the first and most readily available text introduced to the class. Another. may have been, the little acquaintance that we had to the class before the first assignments were due. When I first opened up the homepage, I was already behind schedule, the prerequisites were due days before the class started, I haven't received my material for the class yet, I felt bombarded. At this point in the class, only the first day, I had to catch up, and, presumably, my classmates had to do the same because three days later an assignment was due. Furthermore, selecting the most readily available text wasn't to take the easiest way out, but it was definitely the most appealing. By no means am I complaining, I'm just sharing a brief explanation of my first week.
ReplyDeleteWhile the NYT article was "impressive" I would think that majority of people (whether they would admit it or not). Chose that text because it was the first one available when they clicked, and referred only to it because they had not looked at the others yet. Being made to reflect on this is a valuable lesson so that we do the assignments before the blog posts.
ReplyDelete