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on January 22, 2008 at 2:24:19 pm
 

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 Remeber the Zong!

 

Enter weekly resposes below.  Feel free to comment on others.  Use about 100 words.

The Black Atlantic is a dense account of how our contemporary society attempts to segregate different cultures and influences to ensure that each community has an untainted sense of identity.  I was impressed by how Paul Gilroy tried to mention each perspective in his book and also that he didn’t seem to denounce anything violently but simply propose alternatives.  It seems as if his goal in the book is to mesh all ideas about ethnicity together to convey one cohesive picture of our current society.  I also liked that language is not the only cultural medium that he dealt with; he also included some artistic facets, such as music.  Although I respected his approach to his topics of choice, I would not praise his writing style.  If global perspectives are what he is trying to alter, how can he possible reach his audience when he is so wordy?  I do respect that he seems learned and articulate, but I had a hard time paying attention to his long winded prose and found he took his merry time making a point.  It was a valuable read but not particularly an enjoyable one.       

Alyssa Dytko

 

I would also like to start by agreeing that the text is very dense and although it holds a great deal of information, at times it is hard to stay focused, simply because there is so much information.  I thought that one of the most powerful, or compelling, parts of the book is Gilroy's description of the choice of "death over slavery".  In Chapter 2, Gilroy tells of Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in Kentucky with her family and nine others.  As slave catchers cornered them in a  relative's house in Ohio, Margaret killed her three-year-old daughter and attempted to kill her other three children, hoping to prevent them from returning to a life of slavery.  In the eyes of history, popular history, slavery has always been pained with faded colors, not the whole truth, but just enough.  But what is just enough?  Who says what is just enough? 

Evan Gallagher

 

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