Applying Class Concepts to “Where the Spirit Lives”
Provide as many specific examples of each of the following concepts from “Where the Spirit Lives”:
Framework: How the dominant group maintains power (Both Pharr and Weber’s frameworks):
Institutional Power
Political control: laws/policies/criminal justice system
- The “Whites” lawfully took the children from their Native land
- The school creating rules forbidding native practices of the Indian children
Ideological control: control of ideas through education, religion, media, etc.
- The ideas and practices of Christianity were completely forced on the Native American people.
- This push for Christianity elaborated into the whites trying to strip the children of any Native American
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- Most of the children are physically abused as they are initially forced to change their appearance (i.e. the cutting of Amelia’s hair) and they are physically punished.
- Some of the children are also sexually abused (i.e. the young girl, who later tries to run away and dies, is assaulted by a female teacher).
- Some of the teachers are emotionally abused by the system as some were becoming overly influenced by the cruelty happening and others became attached to their students which led to an are uncertainty as to whether or not they should stand up for the children (do the right thing) or continue with the rules and practices of the
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Tokenism:
- Amelia completely abandoning her native culture in attempt to become “more white,” in hopes of becoming more “desirable” for adoption.
Johns reports that all oppressive systems change and/or end the question is how much damage will be done in the process. How do we see the system beginning to change/end in this video?
Oppressive systems can only change/end once individuals of either side (oppressed and not oppressed) consciously work towards changing the situation. Usually those that are active in the change are willing to risk their wellbeing in order to make things better for all people. The kind teacher in Where the Spirit Lives was an example of the change in the system as she was of the privileged group, but was still willing to sacrifice her job and safety in order to better the lives of the Indian children. Her actions contrast those of the many other abusive teachers and give the viewers hope that the conditions will subside and the situation will change and end in the near future.
Why the title “Where the Spirit
The Celebration of Misfortunes In chapter eight of Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the author describes her arrival in Merced in 1988 and the awkward interactions she has with the Hmong community. Fadiman meets a psychologist named Sukey Walker who helps her realize that by being respectful and having a good translator she could earn the trust of the Hmong community. Fadiman brings a translator named Max Ying Xiong to her meetings with the Lees which helps her gain trust because her translator was related to the Lees through marriage.
“The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn’t get a f-----g job, we had the presidency … That’s what the n-----s don’t realize … no one gives it to you. You have to take it.” (Scorsese)
Selzer’s The Exact Location of the Soul captures the essence of being a physician by using first person point of view, a series of personal anecdotes, and such striking imagery.
Many Indians chose to convert out of fear with assurance by the English that they would be provided with physical security. Physical security was taken from the Christian Native Americans after King Phillip’s War. All of the Native Americans living in the English controlled prayer towns were sold into slavery. Throughout the end of the film I noticed that the English used the Native Americans to their convenience. They continued to honor the treaty until they had found enough power to wipe out the Indians. As the Wampanoag tribe still held their ground, the English were willing to have peace with the Indians but only if they converted to Christianity. After all non-Christian Native Americans were wiped out; the English no longer saw a purpose to keeping the Christian Native Americans around. At their convenience, they sold the remaining Native Americans into slavery.
“A Spirit Reborn” is a well-known article published by the New York Times and written by William Safire. This New York Times columnist has written everything from novels and newspaper articles, mainly focusing on current events and political views, even presidential speeches. His titles have ranged from TV and radio producer, a publicist, a speechwriter, along with others. As a result he has been given many opportunities to discuss a wide range of topics, earning him prizes and even being quoted in a campaign ad for Ronald Reagan. Since the New York Times Newspaper is open to the public, it can be assumed the targeted audience for this article is U.S. Citizens troubled by the terrorist attacks that took place on September, 11 2001. Furthermore
There are some who may argue that oppression is a concept of the past and that it does not exist in our modern society; however, oppression it not always an overt power one person or group exerts over another. It can come in more subtle forms, many of which that have become such normative aspects of our society that some oppressors and oppressed individuals alike may not immediately recognize its impact. In
We expect parents to behave in a reasonable and civilised manner towards all school staff, as professionals, and that issues will be dealt in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. Incidents of verbal or physical aggression to staff by parents/guardians/carers of children in the school will be reported immediately to the Headteacher and/or Governors who will take appropriate action in line with Local Authority Policy.
In societies of past, the oppressor and oppressed are in constant opposition to each other. This fight can be obvious or sublime. However, every time the conflict ends in either a revolutionary reconstruction of society or common ruin.
To build on the previous point of injustices towards Native Americans by over controlling government, the nautonomy that affects the
When thinking about relevant theories to the Native American conflict, there are a few that can be applied in a few different ways to help explain the various aspects of this conflict. Three of the theories discussed in this course – primordialist theory, social construction theory, and psychological theories - contain aspects that are applicable to this Native American conflict, while other theories do a poor job of explaining the conflict. On the other hand, one theory from this course – instrumentalism – is not useful in explaining the conflict.
These stereotypical binaries of the childlike and savage Indian are directly linked to the narratives of white settler society and colonization. Essentially, by classifying all First Nation cultures under a monolith of a few stereotypes the white setter society claimed dominance over the First Nation peoples as they created the lens through which the First Nation’s history and identity would be read. The influence of the press and government policies lead to the acceptance of these stereotypes as defining truths about First Nations people which aided the settler societies in solving the Indian problem by destroying what it meant to be Indian. In this way, the stereotypes not only developed the idea of assimilation to save the Indian, but they
that he only did it to get revenge for what her grandfather did to his
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