Author: Mayra

Week 6: Reflection

I was initially very anxious about metadata and the issue of representing material digitally in  away that is very conscious of the goal of the SCL. In so my approach to each object was somewhat slow and cautious, but a method that I honestly believed served me well. I began by reading the object for the most relevant content and attempting to understand the purpose and message of said object. After that I began filling the basic tabs of title, creator, date and type. Once those were finished I would brainstorm both subject terms and a description which I would edit after a second rereading of the item. In so the decisions I was making were ones I now feel comfortable with as there was also a continuous return to the vocabulary terms we generated as a group. If I had to estimate a time frame for each object I would say it was anywhere from 30-45 minutes. There were definitely a couple of materials that I was a bit apprehensive about and reviewed multiple times in an attempt to ensure that I had done the information it contained justice. I attempted to stays as accurate and close to the text as I could, but overall I reviewed the materials all on separate occasions and as a class made alterations based on the consensus on the vocabulary.  The items without a title were simply given a brief description regarding type, prevailing topic and creator. I personally found each and everyone of the readings to be helpful as many of them placed Watts in the necessary context that would permit us to approach this project with a certain degree of awareness. In addition to those I found the articles discussing Digital Humanities and counter histories very impactful as well as the combination  ultimately spoke to the project we are attempting to lay foundations for. 

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Fire This Time by Gerald Horne

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Venus in Two Acts” by Saidiya Hartman 

Digital Humanities Chapter 1 Anne Burdick

Tagging is a way in which to further group and or describe the content of an object and I believe it would be beneficial if it was implemented as a way in which to add commentary. As the objects themselves are telling only of the content within them the library could utilize tags to propel their social justice goals by including tags that speak directly to their community and to the strides they are attempting to make. Adding commentary via tags would leave the object largely  as it  is while simultaneously allowing for the SCL to connect said object to the present or revisit the past and correct/comment on whatever narrative was/is being perpetuated. By using tags the commentary could even be a sort of disclaimer that leads viewers, who may not have the entire story of Watts, to a more open minded and socially/racially conscious mentality.

Week #5: Classification and Ethics

We are making the ethical choices of describing material in a way that is not only findable, but somewhat disassociating it from the narrative that was and continues to be associated with Watts ’65. As with anyone making decisions on the the manner in which something is classified there is no way in which to not be subjective and this is largely where the ethical questions come in. We must ensure that we do not encode the material in a way that is counterproductive to goal of the library. We can only strive to be very conscious that what we are doing is indeed placing an opinion or connotation on a work or material that will be made available to others and which will coincidentally be read a certain way because of how it has been labeled. This level of responsibility is daunting and I believe none of us what to misrepresent the community for which this material is largely being sourced for or perpetuate the negative and inaccurate narrative that is displayed in some of these works. An issue I run into then is describing the material that is an inaccurate or highly biased representation for how do I list what it is (for example an article describing Watts 65 as a senseless riot) without perpetuating that narrative? I sometimes feel as if a disclaimer is necessary and maybe tags could be implemented in this way. 

After our work is done I believe it is really important for the Southern California Library to review our progress and decide whether we were able to accomplish the goals of this project. I think that we as outsiders not only to the community, but to the day to day of the SCL we are only superficially able to gage what may be most appropriate or findable for the researchers that utilize their space. We have done a lot of reading not only on Watts, but on history, the power of narrative and the voices that are silenced, the manner in which one classifies information, archives material and how this can aid facilitating a counter history and that along with speakers and visits to the SCL have prepared us to approach this with a certain consciousness that we may not have otherwise had. Yet although we’ve come with the right intentions and a social justice awareness I still fear that it may not translate once the material and their classification is reviewed which is largely why I look to them to critique it. Are we being too cautious in our descriptions  as we were considering ethics, the needs of the SCL, the South LA community and researchers not affiliated to the library- should we have valued one of these more than the others, would that have made our descriptions and subject terms better and more attuned to the SCL’s goal as a library? I know we were all very apprehensive about representing the materials accurately and I still don’t know if this can be done for the material themselves aren’t always accurate representations of things that have happened, but with a comprehensive tagging system that makes that known and a controlled vocabulary I think we can a least create a foundation that will facilitate this. After that is reviewed we can then continue to implement that until it is established enough to have others work within that system as well. 

Week #4: The Family Unit

The lack of female presence in the film speaks largely to the larger trend of Black Nationalism which seemed to in part be centered on the re-appropriation of the Black male body and therefore Black masculinity. This topic makes me recall the image of Huey P. Newton which also serves to assert male masculinity for the Black Panthers and consequently works to negate or silence the Black woman. The film in a similar fashion rejects the female voice by focusing on that of the male. In retrospect this is very interesting as one can be led to believe that the uprising was merely a “fight between males”. Yet no one both in this situation or in something as the Black Panthers ever focuses on the fact the the Black woman facilitated the work the males within the Black Panthers did and that in many was they were active participants and supporters. Although these male centered power movements were problematic they were also distorted to reimagine Black masculinity as a threat and therefore a sort of behavior that needed to once again be oppressed. 

The film essentially codes the uprising as a behavioral problem amongst Black males and therefore the mention of women are few. The first is that of the mother who intervenes during her sons’ arrest, the second is that of the woman who is hit further inciting the “riot” (believed to be pregnant) and the sporadic images of the female who is partnerless and unable to support her family despite government funding. Essentially the family unit within Black communities is coded as the one responsible for what occurred in Watts. The lack of structure, the lack of a male role model is essentially referred to as the reason for why this happened. The youth of Watts who are described as coming from poor homes, fatherless, have been unable to learn the morals that it is incumbent upon the male figure in a household to teach. This narrative serves to remove racism and any other systematic forms of oppression from the forefront. In so one can redress the responsibility of the uprising to the community itself. The narrative of the “unstable Black family unit” within the film seems to also insinuate not only the behavioral failing of the Black man, but the Black woman as well as the implication is that she remained unable to uphold the family on her own. 

Week #4: Evolving Social Media

Our last discussion garnered a lot skepticism with regards to the usefulness of online social networking sites. Despite the sentiments that many of us expressed I do believe that as technology continues to become more influential and sites as these are more normalized t something such as Twitter can be converted into a space of collegial and communal discussion. The notions that these spaces are devoid of an academic atmosphere have more to do with one’s own personal use of them than their actual capacity. With that said, I would venture to say that at this point I view Twitter more as a place for ephemeral group work. As the discusion #digped demonstrated there are people utilizing the site for reflection and brainstorming, although the success of the conversation can be questioned I think the intent is clear and rather positive. There is an attempt and a move towards appropriating social media sites and platforms into the academic sphere. The article “What do Girl Digs” does a good job of showing how a social media platform can succeed at this task.

With regards to incorporating this into ones academic life without crossing the lines of the professional that is more of a question of self policing that not sure anyone can truly answer. I think we are all aware, well there is a general consensus of what will no longer deemed as professional despite the manner in which you phrase it or intend it. There is always a risk to what one posts online specifically because of the accessibility the public has to it and how easy that can be reproduced and misinterpreted. All I would suggest is a very clear awareness of that and seeing as Twitter has a limit on characters I can only believe that said constraint results in concise and clear thoughts which aid in avoiding that very feared misinterpretation. Now notion of using such tools simply for the sake of using them will surely become a thing of past. This isn’t about becoming obsolete, but rather becoming accessibly in a way no scholar could’ve imagined being before. Ultimately, the advent of these platforms will continue evolving and so will academics and the manner in which one does research or engages in conversations. If the first DH project is credited to Robert Bousa in the 1940s than we cannot be so daft as to think that humanities, academia and scholarship as we know it is coming to an end- no it is simply evolving in the same way that is has for centuries as proven by our visit to archives a few sessions ago.

Week 2: Baldwin and Noble’s Look Into Systems of Power

In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin asserts that the “white world” has formulated a mythology revolving America. Yet this mythology is one whose falseness the Black man is aware of although his countrymen (white world) has yet to come to that realization. For his (white) identity is embedded in that mythology and consequently so are their notions of blackness and to reveal it as such, to admit the mythology is just that, that it is a lie, a falsehood, to renege on what they have defined as blackness would be to give way to the factors with which they conceptualize whiteness. To expose it all as a lie would be to destroy the very foundations of the white identity. It would be an erasure of America and consequently of whiteness. Yet Baldwin seems to suggest that only this would allow for Blacks to emerge from the state of invisibility that they have been condemned to and therefore provide for a mutual state of freedom. Yet the erasure of this mythology is therefore highly problematic for whites for once they are devoid of this binary and the mythology of what America is, with this mirror that reflects only the self and no other what would be seen? I think both Baldwins and Noble’s works speak to issues of representation and the manner in which mythologies are created to serve one group. The systems that create them then gain and maintain power by marginalizing others and Noble demonstrates the manner in which our current society contributes to that. Noble’s research on Google demonstrated how it facilitates and allows its biased searches to be thought of as neutral and how this perpetuates negative representations and essentially the silencing of Black women.

America much like the internet or Google, has made commodities out of the black body so much so that their defining features and characteristics revolve around notions that uphold and perpetuate those falsified and negative definitions of blackness. The supposed neutrality of technology can also be thought of as part of the mythology that surrounds the internet. It was hailed as a space of neutrality that would facilitate a new age of acceptance and understanding yet as Noble has demonstrated it is anything but that. In so the interests of large corporations, such as the Porn industry, are reflected in searches that involve Black women. This conversion of Black women into girls who have been coded as a sexual objects is mistakenly believed to be a result that reflects the unbiased response of an algorithm;the truth is that financial gain on behalf of the Porn industry is truly what is generating said results. These results and the misconception or the mythology of the commercial search engines- Google, then work to misrepresent Black women, objectifying them and I would venture to say perpetuating notions that predate the institution of slavery. What came to my mind when Professor Noble spoke was the manner in which sexuality became an easy way in which to dehumanize, oppress and essentially work towards conceptualizing as an “other”, different racial/ethnic groups. The stereotypical depiction of the Black woman as a Jezebel for example, reduced them to a body and largely rendered them invisible. I would venture to say that the biases of Google similarly aid in marginalizing Black women. Here we can see how our post civil rights society, who sometimes boasts of progress by claiming colorblindness, continues to propel negative definitions of blackness. In so both Nobel and Baldwin call for an acknowledgement from these systems and an erasure of the mythology that aids in perpetuating said notions.

LC Terms: History of the Americas, United States local history, Historiography, Afro Americans , Status and development since emancipation, Political history, Slavery in the United States, Twentieth Century
B) My suggested terms: Counter History, White definitions of Blackness, Racism, Oppressive systems of Power.
Terms that I believe match those in my suggested list: Psychoanalysis and racism, white supremacy movements—United States, Technology and women, Race 

Week #1:Counter History

Hartman states, “…by re-presenting the sequence of events in divergent stories and from contested points of view, I have attempted to jeopardize the status of the event, to displace the authorized account, and to imagine what might have happened or might have been said” (11). In many ways the Jet article is doing exactly this, it is attempting to displace an authorized account. It serves as a counter history to the Times article because it is a revisiting and revision of the accounts otherwise told of Emmet’s murder. One can easily see the differences in the articles from the language utilized to the images or lack thereof. The Jet article disrupts the narrative most notably with images that offer everyone the opportunity to, in a sense, reconstruct the past by looking into the casket. 

The Times article is a censored version of the real story. It is brief and devoid of details choosing strategically the manner in which the instance is described. The title is “Slain Youth’s Body Seen by Thousands” whereas Jet titles their article “Nation Horrified by Murder”. The times article is surrounded with “business as usual” snippets of news while Jet grants this story a few pages. The Times article is guarded in its language describing everything very lightly, saying the boy was shot and beaten, but there is no mention of the fact that his face was crushed, that he was found with a 200 pound fan tied around his neck or that he was naked. Jet is the one who discloses those details and notes on the very bottom that despite rumors the child wasn’t castrated a real fear and an act reminiscent of the lynchings that were valorized in the south. The Times article includes as its last sentence the mention of Communists and if to further disconnect the reader from the reality of what occurred.

Ultimately,  Jet addresses that which the Times article would not, it revisits the violence and places it right before you. As Hartman says, “ My effort to reconstruct the past, is well, an attempt to describe obliquely the forms of violence licensed in the present, that is, the forms of death unleashed in the name of freedom, security, civilization and God/the good” (13). Jet’s article acts as a counter history because it too looks to the past for the purpose of affecting the present. Emmets murder was unleashed in the name of the “good”, for the “security” of the white woman and because of the freedom of two white men. The Jet article does very much what Hartman does to Venus, “ My account replicates the very order of violence that it writes against by placing yet another demand against the girl, by requiring that her life be made useful or instructive, by finding in it a lesson for our future or a hope for history” (14). Jet does a similar as the article revises the initial account, revisits the violence and ultimately requires that Emmet be a lesson for the future.