AMST 422 Prompt B

The mission of our project is to generate $10,000 that will be to extend the longevity of the Filbert St Garden with the addition of a new manager who will maintain the garden's operations. We will be planning an event that will motivate community involvement and activism towards greener resources and living.

So far the readings we've had from class in total have made me realize the pressures of finding a balance that reflects the wants of everyone involved. The article discussing social entrepreneurship highlighted the many ways entrepreneurs make money. What stayed with me most was the ability of business savvy people to find new means or avenues of generating profit. Anyone can make money, but the special quality to look at a problem and having an approach that uniquely helps the context of the situation is the niche I'd want to have and use with this project. Regarding that, the unique ways we've briefly brainstormed ideas to make money have me excited about our potential impact on the community.

Another article that resonated with me was the discussed the different types of memory and the challenges of honoring those memories with respect to conventional means and representing the wants of those from within the community and private investors.

More specifically I like the idea of selling alcohol to aid in making money that will go towards our efforts as well as including local businesses and brewers to be involved. And to this effect I definitely like the idea of offering foods that are cooked with fresh greens from the garden, cooked with alcohol, and to look at the history of the local flavor and honoring that memory. This is an undertaking but not an impossibility.

AMST 422 Prompt A

We aspire to understand the impact of place and preserving it's history while finding a balance between reflecting the needs of the changing local community and the gains of greater commerce. More to the point AMST 422/680 will continue the efforts it had originally started in 2009. to help maintain local history and while supporting local businesses.

AMST 300 Abstract

Black Pass Discrepancies (272)

Definitions of Blackness in 21^st Century African America

This dissertation examines the conflicting meanings of what is black in the 21^st century. Beyond skin, this awareness encompasses and influences speech, clothing, and attitude. Deviations within the hegemonic framework of expectations is ostracized and denied full inclusion of black unity from some social groups. The post-Civil Rights generation asserts validation and status with affinity to specific styles and name brand loyalty. I will examine group identification models to support the mechanics that go into racial formation of African Americans. I will also use ethnographic excerpts of how black people view stigmas of ‘acting black’ and ‘acting white’. Popular items in fashion and technology will be reviewed for their significance to defining what black means to some people. These varying meanings have hampered the progression of blacks socially as a whole and continue the social hierarchical constraints whites enacted upon blacks pre Civil Rights. This dissertation suggests that after the Civil Rights era, blacks began emulating celebrities and other blacks that had success, money, and respect instead of activists and political pioneers. Why is a black person criticized for not liking things that most people like? Why is denying blackness and inferring whiteness a response to something different within the culture? Since the Civil Rights era, blacks are included in pop culture, as business entrepreneurs, and stars embodying personal success. Later generations are detached from the struggle for inequality and those that never get ostracized do not see the injustice within the racial dynamic of who is real, fake, or non-existent according to the favored majority.  Awareness of disunity and what is acceptable in confronting differences is essential to equalizing racial cognizance.  

The Definitions of Blackness :Assumed societal behaviors and expectations within 21st century African America

I am going to write about what defines hegemonic African American identity in the 21st century because I want to find out the history of societal black judgement in order to help my reader better understand why blacks feel the need to judge and legitimize blackness and what steps can be made to counteract black ostracism.

**SORRY FOR DELAY IN POSTING. LIFE HAPPENS (b^-^)b**

Anywho...

My topic will engage the reader in asking why judgement within races exist. Every race and culture has defining characteristics that are used in identifying something and someone familiar or abnormal. Face value is not enough or dedication in some instances is not enough to save people from ridicule. Why are blacks so judgmental of what they don't understand?
What spakred my own interest was my personal experience being ostracized by students when I was younger. I was teased for everything from my clothes, my hair; but the one thing I detested more was being critiqued on my blackness. My hair and clothes I could attempt to change, but changing my dialect; the way I spoke, or my opinion of things that mattered would have altered who I was. I liked that I was unique and I didn't want to alter that, I wanted to highlight that I was different. In doing so I pulled away from my race for a while and hung out with other races that weren't judgmental and other black people that had also been 'kicked out'.

My topic concerning African American hegemony dates back to desegregation and the introduction of equality and white students in the black social sphere (268 McWhorter). I will describe other social theories of why this dilemma within the African American social construct exists so the reader can understand the many eyes that have been emersed and are following the topic.

McWhorter, John. Winning The Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black. New York: Gotham Books. 2005. Print.

What is Black Enough? : Assumed societal behaviors and expectations within African America

Okay….so I'm changing my research proposal. I am going to write about
what defines hegemonic African American identity in the 21st century because I want to find out the history of societal black judgement in order to help my reader better understand why blacks feel the need to judge and legitimize blackness and what steps can be made to counteract black ostracism.

This has been something that has fascinated me ever since I was a kid. My  black peers constantly made me question who I was. If I was not black as they claimed, then what or who was I? I didn't have name brand things and I was not familiar with popular African American media or music, I felt disconnected.

I want to research more theories about what makes the collective black  experience. One theory explains that during the 60's after desegregation when blacks were exposed to white students and had themselves too compare themselves too. Doing well and getting good grades was a white characteristic. The need for materialistic brands to define personal success is costly and irrelevant to the goals blacks should have.

I can see ideas about being a black person changing with newer generations, but some ideas and beliefs are deeply rooted and need to be modified to alter the expectations blacks have of one another. (221)

The Dead Speak

I've always been fascinated by mummies. Egyptian mummies marveled me as a child and as I aged I liked to research ancient cultures. The Inca of Peru for example astound me because within 500 years they dominated other cultures, engineered man made structures with no modern tools, and one of their most famous sites, Machu Picchu, remained hidden from human knowledge until Hiram Bingham discovered it in the beginning of the 20th century.

I enjoy learning of historical discoveries and no artifacts being stolen and harmed. Recently my newest fascination is Gobekli Tepe, a temple site unearthed on the highest hills of Turkey, which has been excavated for the past 13 years. Only 5% of this structure has been studied and no tools have been found so far. What makes this place special is it's age, dating back to 12,000 B.C, but also rumors the site was buried instead of destroyed.

Since my love of unknown cultures can't be studied academically with little sources available, I want to focus my concentration on the dead. Mummy is a word originated from the arabic Mumiyah means 'body preserved by wax'. All the mummies discovered throughout history were not mummified on purpose. Some cultures like that within Egypt used mummification for religious reasons and reserved it for people of status and wealth. I want to explore other cultures that have pursued the practice of body preservation and their reasons why.

I've done some preliminary research and have found a culture that mummified all of its citizens. The Chinchorro people of South America would mummify everyone including children and fetuses. These mummies are twice as old as Egyptian ones and were prepared in different ways. Besides materials and tools, how they prepared the body may have been influenced by religion or in part to preserve the body more.

Globally, why is mummification purposefully pursued within cultures and what methods were use? I want to examine cultures throughout recorded history and the world to uncover what motivated some to preserve their dead. 

Some differences in technique are interesting. The Chinchorro mummies have their bodies disassembled, disemboweled, and reassembled covered in clay with a sown wig and helmet. Egyptian culture removed organs as well, but took care not to harm the body too much.

Another culture that prepared their dead were the Aleut people off the coast of Alaska. They remove organs, the bodies laid in streams of running water to dissolve the body fat, positioned and dried, then covered in leather and continued to dry in a cave. Why? Power is supposed to continue after death.

Ultimately mummies are windows through which souls can still act. The acts involved with mummification may seem cruel or extreme, but in the cases involving purposefully preserved people, great care and concern was used with the bodies. Mummies are the best time capsules that survive history and can tell us so much about cultures.

There is a reason for everything. (491)

What makes me ME

Hello, I haven't blogged in a while. I will take advantage of this new mode of communication while expressing myself. I have a lot of interests. My personal interests vary but I enjoy reading news stories throughout the day. I especially enjoy the wacky or weird news stories. With my minor being Theatre I would one day love voice acting or being a comedic actor. Working for the Onion News would be awesome.  I like reading scifi romance novels. My favorite author is Sherrilyn Kenyon. I want to publish my own fiction one day. I would like to become a successful author like Miss Kenyon or like J.K Rowling.    I like listening to American and Japanese rock and hip hop and Japanese pop. I love driving my manual Volkswagen GTI Turbo at accelerated speeds on the tight twists and curves of Ellicott City. I am a supporter of gay rights, animal rights, hard working immigrants gaining citizenship. I love history and am passionate about the preservation of artifacts. My favorite ancient cultures to study are the Inca of Peru as well as Egyptian culture. What makes me unique from other people is my generous patient demeanor. I am an only child with few real family, so I've made up the void with friendships that I've held for years. I live with my mom and some of my best friends. I enjoy being at home reading, chilling with friends, and taking care of my mom. I treat others as I'd like to be treated, so I will go above and beyond for most people because I appreciate the sentiment when it is given to me. (271 words)