Constructions of Nationalism and Race

Constructions of Nationalism and Race Making Others/Making Us: Constructions of Nationalism and Race The essay presents a critique of various articles based on concepts of space and identity. The different articles analyzed discuss how individuals from different races interact in a given space as well as geographical location. The article Latino immigrants and the regeneration of place and belonging in small town America by Lise Nelson and Nancy Hiemstra offer a comparison of the politics of place and belonging within two communities namely Woodburn (Oregon) and Leadville in Colorado. As explained in the article, the two communities have experienced a considerable rise in the number of Latino immigrants in the last two decades; hence the members of the society face the issue of belonging. The article authors present detailed explanation regarding the demographic information of the members of the two communities, as well as the impacts of the immigration on place identity and social belonging. The article is informative since it brings out a significant negative impact on the increased number of immigrants. As explained by the authors, the individuals who currently immigrate to America hold different perspectives as compared to their counterparts who settled in the country a century ago. The new and post-modern immigrants are barely interested in assimilating into the American culture since they have adopted a rather parasitic approach to the US. Therefore, the issue of belonging and place identity sets in since the current immigrants only want to attach themselves to their American host and later feed off it, and at the same time, maintain their native cultures and identity. However, the authors fail to appreciate the positive impacts of immigrants in the United States. According to the authors, the immigrants only benefit from the communities, in which they finally settle, hence referring to the individuals as parasites. The authors have ignored the numerous benefits bro ught about by the immigrants. Such benefits include the availability of new skills and expertise in US companies, the rich culture which ultimately leads to acculturation, as well as work efficiency particularly due to the presence of millions of undocumented workers in the country. Nonetheless, the authors further ventures into assessing the concept of immigrant incorporation which has been debated on multiple instances of assimilation, transnationalism, and multiculturalism. The issues about immigrants have been well reviewed using concepts of place and belonging. Even though individuals moving to new places adapt to the new culture, it is quite difficult to shed previous identities and cultural or political affiliations. In that light, the authors appreciate the fact that immigrants are expected to maintain active social networks as well as conduct essential life activities across national boundaries, form trans-local spaces of community, political action and affiliation. The article further ventures into appreciating the concept of space and identity in regard to the immigrants to the two communities in the US. The authors describe the concepts of place and identity pertaining to the socially recognized membership of immigrants. The literature in the article is considerably adequate in elaborating the concept of belonging, as the authors describe belonging as the desire for some attachment, either of other places, people, ways in which people and groups are involved in attempting to long or wanting to become. Furthermore, the authors have provided an excellent description of the concept of place and the community. As explained in the article, structures of class, race, as well as illegality in migration shape whether the immigrants are viewed (or view themselves) as full members of a given community or geographical place. The authors have concluded that there are shortcomings in treating immigrants as an undifferentiated mass, particularly in homogeneous circumstances. In that light, the analysis of the immigrants into the two communities in the US is pertinent to identifying the underlying principles of the concept of place and identity. As elaborated by the authors, the Mexican immigrants who settled in Woodburn and Leadville positioned themselves as per the hierarchies of class, race, and illegality. Therefore, it would be quite difficult to attain nationalism in those two communities since the immigrants still had strong ties with their original cultures despite being assimilated into the American culture. A similar concept of the legality of migration has been discussed in McClintocks article on Nationalism, Gender, and Race. As explained by McClintock, all nationalisms are gendered, and in most instances, it is dangerous since it represents relations to political power as well as various constructs of violence. The article provides a detailed explanation of the negative impacts of nationalism as it attempts to demean immigrants and their original way of life. As the article states, nationalism invents nations where they do not exist and also tries to construct most modern countries regardless of their appeal to an honored and immemorial past, but the nations are all of the recent invention. McClintock further notes that nationalism ends up being constitutive of individuals identities through social competitions that are usually violent as well as gendered. The article has successfully assessed the concept of gender difference in terms of provision of access to resources and rights in the country.   According to McClintock, no nation has ever been bold enough to offer women and men the same access to national resources or even granted equal rights to the two genders. The article by McClintock provides an exclusive description of the concept of nationalism as he equates gender with power in any nation. According to the author, gender differences between men and women are symbolic to the limits of differences in a country as well as the governmental power among men. Women are typically viewed as the symbolic bearers of the country whereas men as regarded as the policy makers as well as rulers. In that light, nationalism is a gendered discourse that would be challenging to understand without consideration of a theory of gender power. There is an excellent examination of the different entities that tend to differ with the gendering of countries. On the other hand, white feminists have been greatly involved in the identification of the downside of the concept of nationalism. However, the feminists have been considerably slow in recognizing that nationalism is more of a feminine issue. The third article that focuses on constructions of nationalism and race is The Most German of Towns: Creating an Ideal Nazi Community in Rothenburg ob der Tauber by Joshua Hagen. The article explores the means through which Rothenburg was manipulated to further the ideologies the Nazi believed to be the major features of German and its history. According to the article, it was during the Nazi period that the Rothenburg town (which was a symbol of Germanys culture) acted to illustrate as well as model the Nazis ideas of the landscape and also how to run the country. The article offers a rich introduction that lays the foundation of the paper by explaining that such activities as tourism, anti-Semintism as well as historical preservation went through changes and also acted as key issues to further the policies of the Nazi rule. The article provides detailed insights into the issue of imagined communities in attempts to explain the impacts of the Nazi rule in the nation, particularly in Rothenburg Town. Through the examination of the concept of the imagined communities, the article has adequately provided a key to understanding how the issues of culture, identity, and relations in the society have been expressed in terms of historic places and landscapes. The author further details the perfect picture of a nation through the exploration of geographical space that is romanticized and involving a historical landscape. Through the explanation about the concepts of space and place as provided by the author, the article makes it evident that nationalizing certain historical landscapes and places are of great significance as it represents the idea of the country as well as its part. Besides, the process of nationalizing such entities becomes essential in limiting, contesting, as well as shaping the contexts through which the communities in the countries are imagined. Therefore, the Nazi capitalized on landscaping and space in efforts to frame their envisioned national community. Another article addressing a similar concept of the imagined communities is Imagined Communities Selections by Anderson. As Anderson puts it, nationality (nation-ness and nationalism) are cultural artifacts regarded to be of a particular kind. The article by Anderson presents an excellent account of the origin of the concept of nationality, a concept that is related to the idea of imagined communities. With the description of the ways through which nationality as a concept has come into being, as well as why nationalism currently commands great emotional legitimacy, the author fully paints the picture of the imagined communities. The article can also be described as informative as it provides a detailed explanation of the reasons as to why the cultural artifacts continue to arouse such deep emotions and attachments, particularly in the construction of modern societies. Anderson further proposes a way to discern between communities upon consideration of nationalism. According to Ander son, nationalism masquerades under false pretenses and therefore, there is the need to assimilate the term invention to falsity and fabrication instead of referring to it as creation or imagining. In that light, true communities exist, and they can be advantageously positioned to nations. However, despite the full description of the concepts of nationalism and imagined communities, the article does not warrant a sure way or style to imagine communities. As opposed to Joshua Hagens article that accounts how the Nazi fully designed Rothenburg Town to become a modern town, Anderson fails to give a detailed description of how individuals can imagine the new and modern communities. As Anderson claims, communities are to be discerned by the style in which they are imagined rather than by their genuineness or falsity. The major shortcoming to Andersons belief is that different societies may hold different styles or ideas of their imagined communities.

Compare and Contrast: Cataract Operation, About his person, & Poem

Simon Armitage was born in 1963 and lives in West Yorkshire. Simon Armitage has taught at the University of Leeds and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and currently teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. He writes biographical poems, which are based on things, which he has experienced in his life. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting three of Simon Armitage's poems, Cataract Operation, About His Person and Poem. The subject matter in Cataract Operation is about the poet looking out of his window and seeing things in a way he has never seen them before, like pigeons in the yard, washing on a line, and hens pecking for food. This is because a cataract operation clears the lens of his eye's, which has become unclear, so the poet is affectionate to his new way of seeing things to having had a difficulty in front of his eyes cleared away by surgery. The subject matter is a happier and more enjoyable compared to About His Person. About His Person lists all the items that a dead man had upon him when he was discovered. It reads like a police officer's report. The following quotations â€Å"an analogue watch, self-winding, stopped†, â€Å"but beheaded in his fist†, and â€Å"a ring of white unweathered skin† all show a sign of a wrecked and finished life. Poem could be similarly compared to the two other poems. The reason being is as it shows signs of affectionate love and signs of tragedy and deceitfulness. Poem is about a husband and a father who has a serious problem with his frame of mind. † And if it snowed and snow covered the drive he took a spade and tossed it to one side, and always tucked his daughter up at night, and slippered her the one time that she lied. This quote shows us that he had a mixed personality and proves sometimes he did this, and sometimes he did that. The language used in Cataract Operation can be very misleading, as the poet creates phrases, which could mean a number of things and is left to the reader to decide. â€Å"A pigeon in the yard turns tail† is an example of the misleading language used because we imagine the bird turning around so that its tail faces the poet in the window, while at the same time we can read turns tail as ‘runs away from' or ‘turns its back on', as if it is snubbing the poet. Simon Armitage also uses a mixture of metaphors and personifications so that every item of drying laundry takes on a characteristic movement of the country or place that we might associate that item with. For example, the shirt is doing â€Å"monkey business†, as if the shirtsleeves were the monkey's arms and the handkerchief waves cheerio as the original type of British man who wears a handkerchief in his chest pocket might do. The poem is laid out in ten couplets, but they are not rhyming couplets as we observe in About His Person. There is no steadiness in the length of the lines, to highlight that everything the poet sees is new and irregular. The language used in About His Person is very similar to the language used in cataract operation. Again the poet uses a number of misleading expressions, like the title itself. It could be a formal way of saying, â€Å"he had on him†, but if you look at it in a different manner then it could also suggest that the poem is about the dead person whom is the subject of the poem. About His Person written in ten two-line stanzas called rhyming couplets. They are short and accurate, just like the notes that a detective might make if he or she was investigating a dead body. The language used in Poem is different compared to the other two poems, as the words are simple. There is no misleading phrases used and the language could be considered as straight forward and formal. â€Å"And every week he tipped up half his wage. And what he didn't spend each week he saved. And praised his wife for every meal she made. And once, for laughing, punched her in the face. † This language is easy to understand and is uncomplicated compared to About His Person and Cataract Operation. Poem is a sonnet, which is often the figure used for love poetry. Maybe, this highlights the lack of love in the man's life. It is divided into three regular stanzas with a couplet to finish. This might help to underline the steadiness and ordinariness of the man's life. The Ideas and attitudes of cataract could be very difficult to understand. We do not know what it was that made the Simon Armitage suddenly see all the objects he talks about in a new manner. Perhaps he did have a cataract operation or maybe he was imagining what it must be like to have one or he could even use the idea of a cataract operation as an image of what it is like to open your eyes. One thing is for sure, that he is trying to explain that we should appreciate our world and see the inner beauty that it possesses. The poet for example saw the images according to his situation and saw the magic in the simplest way and opened his eyes towards it. This cannot be compared to About His person as in this poem a man is being revived within the poem and the poem could be called as a memorial to him. In this poem Simon Armitage creates a misleading story and we are not totally sure of what happened. The police do not get emotionally involved in cases like these, as they gather the bare facts and leave the feeling out, but we sympathise for the man as we believe he was forced to kill himself and we see him as a victim of love and deceit. Poem can in a way be similarly compared to Cataract Operation because it tries to prove a point and produce a moral. The way Simon Armitage tried to make people aware of the beauty of our world in Cataract Operation is similar to the way he tries to make the man in Poem represent the ordinary gentlemen and set a message that sometimes you might do this, and sometimes you might do that. In this poem Simon Armitage does not actually condemn the man for all the things he did wrong; he simply lists the mistakes and leaves us to represent them. Overall I think that About His Person and Poem are similar because they both include the story of a man, whom is involved in marriage and both men have suffered from a problem and in this essay I have fully compared and contrasted all three of Simon Armitage's poems.

Daisy Miller a Hero Essay

A hero is a person, whom no matter what the situation is, always seems to be able to approach situation with a fearless and courageous attitude, and can is often admired by many. The novel Daisy Miller by Henry James is a fictional story about the life of an American girl in Europe and the situations that she experiences. Daisy reacts to these situations with a fearless and courageous approach. Her actions seem to affect every character in the story and are misperceived by many. Daisy consistently had the courage to stand up to the other Americans, the characters who adapted to the European culture, even though they continued to pressure her, and prevailed by not conforming to European society. Daisy is a hero in this story because of the way she approached and handled situations. A major conflict in the story is the clash of American culture and European culture. Daisy is constantly thrown into situations where she is pressured to conform to some traditional European way of doing things. Daisy does not let this pressure get to her. She instead continues to act without fear of what might happen to her. The text shows many examples of this. A major cultural conflict that happened in the novel is when Daisy is walking around the Pinchio with Mr. Winterbourne and Mr. Giovanelli. Mrs. Walker comes up in her carriage and begs Daisy to get in because of what her reputation might become since she was walking around with two men ( ). After Daisy refuses, Mrs. Walker says â€Å"should you prefer being thought a very reckless girls? and even gets Mr Winterbourne involved by having him give his opinion which lined up with Mrs. Walker’s( ). After examining the text, the reader sees that Daisy responds with a very fearless and courageous way, which in a way can also be compared to a quote from Emerson’s Self Reliance, â€Å"to be great, is to be misunderstood. † â€Å"â€Å"If this is improper, Mrs Walker,† she persued, â€Å"then I am all improper, and you must give me up†Ã¢â‚¬  is a quote that beautifully illustrates Daisy’s heroic personally by not being intimidated from the pressures of society. Another conflict in the novel was that at certain places at certain times, the chances of getting malaria were very high. While many of the locals decided to stay away from these areas, Daisy chose to not live fear. This fearlessness that Daisy displayed, led to Mr. Winterbourne confronting her and Mr. Giovanelli at the coliseum late at night about her catching the Roman fever (). Giovanelli responded to Winterbourne by saying he informed Daisy it was a â€Å"grave indiscretion† which Daisy responded with prudence (). Even now that Daisy was severely warned about the disease she still showed no fear and showed how she could be an inspiration to other women by saying she had a lovely time seeing the coliseum by moonlight and if she felt any danger she would take some pills (). â€Å"I don’t care,† said Daisy in a little strange tone, â€Å"whether I have Roman fever or not† shows how Daisy would not let fear dictate her life( ). Daisy Miller was a hero because of the fearless qualities that she displayed in the novel Daisy Miller. She may not display the common stereotypes of other fictionalized heroes such as flying or x-ray vision, but she does have influence on people, especially women, on how they can act regardless of what culture they are from. This view on life is very important because it shows young women, that they are empowered to handle situations anyway they like. Even when she died, many people showed up to her funeral and admired her. Giovanelli even stated at her funeral that out of all the women she was the â€Å"most innocent † ( ).

A Live Action Documentary Of The History And Its Impact On...

The film contains two narratives, a live action documentary of the history of textile mills in the United States and a cartoon drama about people dealing with the struggles typical in the early years of this industry. Although they are interwoven with each other in the film, these narratives will be summarized separately in this essay for the sake of clarity, first the documentary section, and second, the cartoon, but reflected upon as a unit to better focus on the impact of the film as a whole. The documentary section details the evolution of technology in the era and its impact on society, beginning with a description of what things were like in the United States prior to the appearance of mills, noting that everything had to be done manually. In New England, the creation of clothing typically involved shearing sheep for their wool, followed by cleaning and carding the wool, making it into slivers, spinning the slivers into thread, and weaving the thread into cloth, and sewing the pieces of cloth together into clothing. Tools such as the loom and spinning wheel aided in the process, but they had to be operated manually. Water wheels had previously been used to power the grinding of grain. Eventually, in Europe, they also came to be used to power machines that handled carding, then machines called water frames that spun multiple slivers at once, thus drastically increasing the production of yarn. Spinning mills were established, generating numerous jobs. Although, in theSho w MoreRelatedMovie Response : The Interrupters880 Words   |  4 PagesThe Interrupters The documentary, The Interrupters, focus on the impact education has in the brutality and bloodshed in the United States. Chicago, Illinois is one of the most violent cities in the US, and because of this multiple violent prevention projects were formed.The documentary followed â€Å"interruptors† of violence in the streets of Chicago through mediation. â€Å"Interrupters† are former high ranking gang members who volunteered to stop the violence in hopes to save lives. One of the major â€Å"interruptors†Read MoreHow Do Documentaries Produce ‘Truth Effects’? Essay1379 Words   |  6 PagesHow Do Documentaries Produce ‘Truth Effects’? The role of media has often been a subject of much debate, particularly in terms of its role in portraying and conveying truth to the target audience. Some argue upon its utility as a means to disseminate information and to rectify perceptions and facts in the minds of the viewers; while others squabble on the amount of misrepresentation which is often adopted by media as a means to project baseless arguments which lead to severe impact on the minds,Read MoreThe Obomsawin Is A Canadian Film Maker Who Is Well Known For Directing Numerous Documentaries1611 Words   |  7 PagesAlanis Obomsawin is a Canadian film maker who is well known for directing numerous documentaries on the plights of the Indigenous people. Alanis Obomsawin was born August 31, 1932 outside of Lebanon in New Hampshire but raised in Quebec. Obomsawin is a member of the Abenaki Nation but left there when she was just a baby â€Å"returned with her family to the Odanak reserve near Sorel, Quà ©bec, at the age of si x months. Her father was a guide and a medicine maker, and her mother ran a boarding house.† (historica)Read MoreAnalysis Of Raoul Peck s French Cinema 1491 Words   |  6 Pagesdirector and screenwriter and has left a memorable impact in the film industry with his cinematic adaptations of reality. From taxi driver, to Minister of culture, to honorary award winning director, Raoul Peck has experienced the world in ways few will ever have the chance to. Just as he thought his life would revolve around international affairs at the United Nations, he created a bigger platform to spread the news about foreign relations. His documentaries and films have been about real people and heRead MoreSlavery And The African Americans1071 Words   |  5 Pagesthat I was wrong. After having watched the documentary â€Å"Slavery by Another Name† I gained new insight into the history of slavery and the struggles that African Americans suffered during that time. I learned that slavery did not end after the 13th Amendment was passed. After the Amendment was passed African Americans were victims of segregation. Whites in the south continued to be in power and still found ways to continue slavery. According to the documentary Many African Americans were being incarceratedRead MoreThe Perspectives Of Black Women And Girls Of Darker Skin1629 Words   |  7 PagesIn the documentary, the perspectives of black women and girls of darker skin was examined along with the perceived struggles surrounding their existence within the black community. One of the main interviewees was that of an 8 year old dark complexion girl was noted as saying â€Å"I don’t like to be called black.† The little girl spoke of feeling inferior due to her dark skin. On the opposing end, a girl in the same age bracket but of a lighter complexion also shred the same feelings of sadness as sheRead MoreTeaching History in Schools Depends on the Source1073 Words   |  4 Pagesinformation, reacting and indulging differently if that information comes from an educational outlet than that of a social or even private source. This is especially the case with history with more students feeling overwhelmed and unattached to history information supplied to them through classrooms or teachers but respond well to history when it is received through media outlets, technology or just outside the educational system. Maybe it is due to the students’ perception that anything taught at school isRead MoreAnalysis Of Crips And The Bloods Essay1361 Words   |  6 Pages In Crips and the Bloods we see multiple examples of labels continuing crime. First off, most of the children born in this area are black and poor. Already they are labeled and stereotyped as being da ngerous to communities, useless to society, and destined for failure. One man says â€Å"I grew up in the hood, I was born in the hood, I was raised in the hood, and I’m going to die in the hood. I didn’t choose my destiny, my destination chose me† (Peralta, 2008). This phrase demonstrates the power of aRead MoreCritical Analysis Of Burned And Shattered Glass1730 Words   |  7 PagesAnalysis of Shattered Glass Nicholas M. Anthony III Media Ethics 404-02 October 21, 2015 Lynn Waltz Critical Analysis of Banished and Shattered Glass Ethics are the rules of conduct recognized in a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture. They are principles and values that shape human activity, especially in regard to specific disciplines. (n.d.) In the field of journalism and communications, there is no difference. Ethics helps practitioners in thisRead MoreFed Up And Forks Over Knives1639 Words   |  7 Pagescreated the first generation of children ever in history which is predicted to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The documentaries Fed Up and Forks over Knives are both in support of creating a healthier America for all individuals. Although they both share a similar concept on how fast-food is extremely harmful, but both take quite different approaches to support their claim. In the documentary Fed Up, Stephanie Soechtig allows us to follow the lives of four families who are struggling with a