I've read 11 comments so far and have found them interesting. Some of you need to be more careful with spelling and grammar. Although I do not plan to correct spelling and grammatical errors on your blog entries, I will be making such corrections on your essays and paper and if there are many such errors which get in the way of understanding what you've written I will take points off for that.
Regarding the family activity I gave you yesterday in class, remember I want each family to identify what you consider three significant points from the video we saw. Also, be sure to make up a short answer question based on something in that video, and we will vote on which one of the short answer questions I will include on the midterm exam. This activity is worth 3 points, with a bonus point going to the family that makes up the best short answer question. Also, don't forget to choose a spokesperson for your family.
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I am posting a comment about the second half of the movie that we watched on Thursday. One thing that I thought was interesting was the shifting view on the value and potential of Native Americans. Initially they were seen am "brown white men", but when they refused to hand over their lands, they were considered savages. This is interesting to me because Africans were never given the opportunity to be considered brown white men because they were always in a position of servitude or slavery.
I agree with what Ashleigh said about treatment towards Native Americans versus African Americans. I think it is odd how they described the Native Americans, besides skin color, as free-spirited people who work to protect their lands. I imagine that when slave traders went to obtain African slaves, they were very free-spirited in protecting and remaining on their lands as well. I fail to see a difference between the Native Americans and Africans free-spirited nature that would lead whites to think better of one particular group. As we all saw, it all pretty much came down to one group's skin being darker. There was no other true basis of judgment beyond that in my opinion.
Just a brief comment on both Ashleigh and Brad's comment about Part 2 of the video series: In addition to the difference between how Native Americans and African slaves were viewed there is an important similarity, which is that both groups were eventually classified as racially different and inferior to whites and this was then used as a rationale to either take their lands or hold them in bondage.
The comment that I found most striking in the second part of this video was when one of the speakers commented on the scientific examinations performed on skulls by Morton. She said something to the effect of, "I don't care how many times you measure a person's skull, it will not determine their behavior, morality, potential, or achievement". If we are truly to defeat racism in our societies, we must realize that we cannot bend science to our will in order to satisfy economic and political aspirations. Science, essential though it is, does not have all the answers. I felt that this comment encapsulated the work of Morton and Agassiz.
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