Discussion n. 8: high standards (June 13)

COMMENT: what did you REALLY learn from this example, in terms of how to approach a task?



 I am posting in clear the best (so far) June 8 assignment  as a model and to show what kind of standards one can aspire to.

1) You can observe very efficient note-taking.

2) Cartoons:  I don't expect you to do so much work -- quantity-wise; but I hope you will set your standards high enough to try to match it in terms of quality

The comments on the individual cartoons are extremely detailed and go deeply into the materials but, MOST IMPORTANT, they show how it is possible to reflect on one's own thoughts.

In this assignment you can clearly see how the material in front of you eyes (the "text") is ONLY A MIRROR onto which you project your own thoughts. (It's much easier to talk about your personal thought process than to invent arguments about something you know little about.)






Thank you, Yocheved, for an outstanding job.

Yocheved Koschitzki                                                                                                                                                       June 8

 

Task 1: NYT article

·         Author wanted to find more information about a family murder in Italy in 1800s – details about racism in everyday life more shocking than the murder

·         Racism even from Italians

·         Current events reminding her about family’s suffering

·         Her great grandmother came to America for a job

·         Italian women were subjected to systemic rape at hands of padroni (landlords) – no way to protest because then can’t find work

·         “prima notte” – similar to Roman governors in Judea (raped brides night before their wedding)

·         In 1800s, half the kids born in Basilicata “instep” of Italy died before 5 – Italians celebrate 1^st birthdays as a result

·         Subhuman working/living conditions in Italy  (very low wages, hard labor, padrones gave meat 2x a year and bread was mixed with sawdust to stretch it) drove wave of immigration to US

·         Very expensive to come, some had to sneak in

·         Once they got to America life was still very hard – menial and dangerous labor

·         Still better than Italy – poor town lost 40% population to emigration – padroni and Italian govt upset

·         US used racist theories to keep Italians out – they are physiologically inferior/“natural criminals”

·         Influenced by Italian Dr. Cesare Lombroso – he said Southern Italians are like primates, savages

·         As a result, US Immigration Act of 1924 banned most Italian immigration – fell 90%

·         People of Italian descent should keep this in mind when discussing current political issues like Mexican/Muslim immigration

 

Task 2: Cartoons

“The Mascot” – This panel of cartoons bothered me because it felt very manipulative. The goal was first to scare people by showing them angry looking Italians to scare them, and then showing the “logical” response – to hunt them down and kill them.  I was surprised at the last one – drowning a group of innocent people alive in a cage was not something I expected people would draw as a goal.

“The Wop” – this cartoon felt less violent and in a way more patronizing. It made me feel angry because the Italian is portrayed as the “bad guy” – he looks stupid and is drooling. The man sitting down getting his shoes polished looks smug and is watching – I guess to make sure the Italian man did a good job? If so, that annoyed me because I hate when people watch me work and that’s even when we can be considered “equal.”  The man watching the Italian man working on his shoes is worse in a way, because the Italian man probably feels humiliated and degraded already, and watching him work waiting to criticize him probably just adds to that.

“Directly From the Slums of Europe” – this one was confusing because a lot more was going on. I got the reference of Italians as “rats” – unfortunately not surprising to me because that comparison has been made with regard to my own culture. I don’t understand what Uncle Sam is doing – he looks a little overwhelmed, and is thinking about the president in the cloud which I also don’t understand. President McKinley was pro-immigration so why was Uncle Sam thinking about him?

“Wake Up Sam”! – this cartoon was also confusing until I saw the commentary after the cartoon. Once I understood the background, I wasn’t surprised. Unfortunately, I feel like it’s common for people to rile each other up using fear, so showing Italian immigrants as murderers is a smart, though racist and bigoted, trick. The “sleeping” policeman is also smart because it gets the people mad at their own government for ignoring the “problem,” which puts pressure on politicians to enact laws.

“Why Not Tax Him?” – this cartoon reminded me of modern day arguments about immigration. Many people are opposed to Mexican immigration because they claim the immigrants don’t pay their fair share of taxes. It made me angry because the same outdated arguments used in the past are also used today which makes me feel like we haven’t made any progress.

“The Padrone” –  This cartoon didn’t really make me feel anything particularly negative. It seems to be portraying the Italian American “padrones” i.e. landlords as low-life thugs. Based on my understanding of the NYT article, that’s what they were. The rest of the people in the cartoon are not drawn in detail so they could be anyone. Therefore, it doesn’t seem racist or bigoted to me.

“An Age of Infernal Machines, But This the Worst of them All” – this cartoon made me feel kind of uncomfortable. Many times on the subway, people come through playing instruments for money. Whenever this happens I usually try not to make eye contact because it’s uncomfortable. Although the race/ethnicity of the people isn’t a factor in my discomfort, it still is similar to the situation in the cartoon. The only reason I have to believe this is a bigoted cartoon is because the Italian person is drawn darker than everyone else. I feel like if he would have been drawn white, the cartoon would not have been as racist.

“Sketch From the Study Window” – this cartoon was also more neutral for me. At first, I felt bad for the men because it looked like they were doing hard work, but it didn’t seem racist. The one man facing the front wasn’t overly caricatured. When I read the description I realized that they were actually organ grinders and they were supposed to be portrayed as annoying, but I didn’t get that impression which I think is why the cartoon didn’t really impact me that much. Also, I didn’t see the louse in the middle of the street until it was mentioned.

“Making Money” –  this cartoon was amusing to me because of the Italian accents used in the caption, as well as the mustaches. I was reminded of Mario the Nintendo character. After I laughed I felt bad because it is derogatory towards Italians by suggesting they all have money from organ grinders or counterfeit.

New York – This cartoon made me feel sympathetic towards the Italians because they were pleading to have the law banning them from making a living revoked Although I think it was intended to make people annoyed at the begging of these immigrants, it had the opposite effect on me. I felt bad for the Italians and angry at the mayor and his men, who looked very haughty. The gate they are standing behind also makes the mayor and his men seem cold and snobby.

“New Country, Old Jobs”, “Sharpening the Stiletto of One of New Orlean’s Assassins”, and “A Mafioso Cobbler in the Italian Neighborhood” are three similar cartoons that made me feel sad and annoyed. They were three pictures of regular people doing regular things, and then someone had to go and use them to paint a negative picture of all Italians. It’s annoying to me that people still assume the worst of everything they see.

“More Italians”? – this cartoon struck a nerve with me because of the attitudes of the American men talking about the Italian immigrants. They think of them as greedy and willing to cheat to get ahead. This reminded me of the many cartoons I’ve seen of Jewish people, portrayed as sneaky businessmen who are untrustworthy and ambitious. I feel like I can relate to this cartoon because of that.

“The Fool Pied Piper” – this cartoon is similar to the one called “Directly From the Slums of Europe”. The only additions are the European leaders in the background cheering America for taking care of their “problem” for them. It made me feel like I want to prove to those leaders that bringing Italians into America was a good decision and benefitted us in the long run.

 

Task 3: Web Research on The Black Hand

I learned the following from my web research on The Black Hand: Towards the end of the 19^th century and into the beginning of the 20^th century, Italian immigration to the United States increased dramatically. Many of these new immigrants came from Southern Italy, where there are many poor, rural villages. The immigrants arrived with very little assets, and were generally less educated. This means that many of them were only able to find work as manual laborers. Since they settled in groups, little neighborhoods populated mostly by Italians popped up. These neighborhoods were little bubbles of Italian culture with little understanding of American cultures and systems, including the criminal justice system. Criminals took advantage of this fear/lack of knowledge about police and extorted wealthier Italians through fear and intimidation. This method became known as The Black Hand. It is a common misconception that The Black Hand was an organized criminal group like a mafia. In reality, many different criminals used Black Hand methods to extort others. These criminals were not necessarily linked or working together, they were all just using the same method, which made controlling them much harder. Black Hand methods included throwing bombs, writing threatening letters, kidnapping, and others. A criminal would write a note with demands and a threat. The note would be signed with some form of a hand or a different threatening image. Black Hand is known for being practiced in New York City, however it was also used in other cities. In New York City the Black Hand extortion methods were fought by Joseph Petrosino, an Italian policeman who was hired to put a stop to Black Hand. He headed a secret police squad to help him. Soon after the squad was formed, Petrosino was killed while visiting Italy. However, after 1915, this wave of “Black Hand” crime subsided because of other factors like tougher sentencing and immigration policy changes.

 

Task 4: Web Research on New Orleans in 1891

When I started reading the information, I was surprised. I didn’t realize there was such a significant population of Italian and Sicilian immigrants in New Orleans, I thought it was mostly French immigrants. It was interesting to read about the background of the lynchings because of the political atmosphere surrounding his death. The fighting between the different factions of Italians and Sicilians was sad because the few violent people on each side ruined the name of Italians all over the United States. I feel like many times when a nation or group is struggling or has problems, their problems are caused or made worse by the infighting, and it seems like that’s what happened here. I was also surprised by the corruption that seemed to be present in the police force, with the police and mayor colluding to collect bribes from brothels and illegal casinos in exchange for protection. Unfortunately, I was not surprised by what happened after the acquittal of the men accused of assassinating the chief of police, David Hennessey. The crowd was certain the men were guilty, and when they were found innocent the crowd was enraged and became violent. This reminded me of events that have occurred in modern times. It’s also not surprising that the mob was egged on by racist and provocative speeches from their leaders, which again, I’ve seen before. It made me angry to read that the mob was not stopped by the policemen guarding the accused men even though they had been acquitted, and allowed them to be killed, because the police should always be expected to protect innocent people from those situations.

 

Task 5: Video Short

·         Two men from The Black Hand write a note to the butcher telling him to pay them $1000 or they will kidnap Maria (wife/daughter?)  and burn down his shop.

·         The butcher gets the note and calls his wife and daughter to him. His wife panics with him, and then he takes his coat and leaves somewhere (to tell the police? Pay the ransom?).

·         The butcher is walking on the street with his daughter when she is suddenly kidnapped by two men in a horse-drawn carriage (Maria is the daughter). The butcher runs after the wagon (along with some pedestrians? Hard to see).

·         The kidnappers from Black Hand take Maria inside a shop which turns out to be their headquarters. Maria is hidden in a bed by the woman in the gang, who hits her and takes away her coat.

·         Maria tries to escape but makes a noise and alerts her kidnappers. They beat her and then one almost stabs her but is stopped by the other two.

·         Meanwhile, two detectives from the NYPD come to the butcher shop and speak to the butcher. They hide in the shop (freezer?) and wait for The Black Hand to show up.

·         A man with a gun comes and points it at the butcher. He slowly puts something on the floor (the ransom money?) and as the man comes to pick it up he is arrested by the detectives.

·         Someone slips Maria a note to unlock the door. She does, and the headquarters are raided by the police. Maria is saved and reunited with her family while The Black Hand gang is arrested.

 

Task 6: Son of Italy

Notes on the sequence of events:

·         (Chapter 1) Spends some time going over early childhood memories- his first memory is his grandmother’s death, small leaky house, childhood fights

·         One time he was accused of throwing a stone at a kid, ran away to under a bridge, was found by the boy’s sister. After she left he had a dream about climbing a huge mountain, it broke and he fell off

·         He comes home, terrified of what the villagers will do to him, it starts to rain. He thinks his family won’t protect him, but when he gets home his mother comforts him

·         (Chapter 2) Born in 1894, old hamlet near Mount Majella

·         When he was 6 he wanted to walk with his mother to the next village – she said it’s too hard but he goes anyway. On the way there is a thunderstorm, they witness an old man -think he’s a wizard- struck by lightning = first tragic experience

·         Activities of childhood – looking for nests and destroying people’s orchards

·         He wrote poems

·         Sent to school at 7 but absent a lot to help parents, still not behind and learned more from elders (Melengo, Alberto)

·         Stopped school at 12, like most kids – had to help at home/work

·         Although life was hard, very poor, he was still happy

·         (Chapter 3) Talking about beggars who came to his town, a strange scary woman rumored to be a vampire – him and his friends test by putting salt on her head but never succeed, she scares them away. One day she talks to the villagers about her powers

·         At a holiday feast the men are drunk and they talk about vampires, yell at wives not to give the strange woman food – she appears and they think she was listening in

·         One woman refuses to give food and is cursed by the witch (beggarwoman), her baby gets sick soon after and people think it’s the witch’s fault

·         He imagines about piercing her with a needle (cure the vampirism), asks his friend to help

·         Him and his friend Antonio try and fail to stab her, instead stab an old lady

·         Meanwhile baby gets sicker, people give the witch gifts to cure him and no effect

·         He meets the witch/hag on a mountain, pities her (first time – usually repulsed) and gives her food. She is injured and upset, cries and mourns. People in hamlet hear, they are suspicious that he has been affected

·         The baby dies, and the witch is found beaten almost to death, dies

·         He writes a poem about it – its published (start of poetry career?)