Thursday, April 14, 2011

Transgress boundaries--reflection of OTHER GERMANS

Since I have a physics midterm tomorrow, I can't go to class and discuss about the reading Other Germans with my classmates. Hopefully they will have a nice discussion.

Before I started reading, I talked about the topic of this reading with my roommate. She asked me, "I don't think there are many black people in German. Where did they come from, did they come from France?" In fact I didn't know the answer since I was not familiar with the history of Europe. The only thing I know is that in French soccer team there are always more black people than that in the national team of Germany. So I started my reading with this question. After tow-days reading, I would say, "Congratulation! She is right." France colonized a large part of African, and they recruited approximately 190,000 African soldier for World War I, because they wanted to keep national troops to renewal the country. Also, as French were not good at military operation,  so they needed African troops who had innate physical capacities and aptitude to war. Then when France was at war with Germany in World War I, those Black troops got into Germany. I'm wondering that if they entered in Germany this way most of them would be enemies to Germans.

"I was insulted and verbally abuse about my father's heritage. That was just after the war. The fathers of all the other kids were German soldiers. And mine was the enemy."  --Hans Hauck

After seeing those paragraph I came up with a question. Did their background generate the racial problem or the racial problem make them have that hard background? As for America, when those black people came to this country they were slaves. At the beginning part of their history in this country they were in the lowest class, and they had to do all the hard work without freedom. So even nowadays their background always influenced people's views towards them. Seeing back to German, if they come to this country as enemies they would get the hatred from native people, so the racial problem among them must be sharper. I don't know how the racial problem generated. Maybe people have the natural to repel the different race. But one thing I'm sure is that it's really sad if we still keep the racial discrimination as we already got in this civilized society such a long time.

As for racial mixture, even I can understand their concerns, but if two people with different races fall in love how can they ban their marriage. But there is a paragraph about "sexual threat" make me rethink about the cause of some racial problems.

"The white woman...has always had a visibly privileged position among Europeans. For this reason the Negro has also shown her, for the most part, absolute respect and submissive obedience... But the white woman was also something different to him, something beyond the term Weib. She was something unreachable to him; something he certainly only seldom consciously desired... Now the negro, who inhabits Africa and parts of the rest of the world in countless millions and generally stands on a lower rung of the evolutionary ladder, is not only being brought to Europe, not only being used in battle in a white country; he is also systematically being trained to desire that which was formerly unreachable for him--the white woman! He is being urged and driven to besmirch defenseless women and girls with his tuberculous and syphilitic stench, wrench them intone his stinking apish arms and abuse them in the most unthinkable ways! He is being taught that...he can do anything his animal instincts even remotely demand, without the slightest restraint, he even finds support for this form the 'victors.'"

Sometimes we think that most crime and rapes were did by black people, but do we ever think that may be the result coming from the way we treat them. If we don't create the barrier between each race people won't desire something so much. And because of the discrimination they experience in the life make they have more antisocial thoughts and behaviors.

"We are the victims of our History and our Present. They place too many obstacles in the Way of Love. And we can not enjoy even our differences in peace."

I do hope people can transgress boundaries, and enjoy the differences. Life should be equal and beautiful.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

They are telling the history to us, also living with us.--reaction to The Ghosts of Berlin

Last week when I talked with my friend about this trip to Berlin, the first thing he mentioned to me is modern and classic architectures there, and some of my classmates also said they wanted to see the architectures there during our first meeting. So I think the architectures there must be very special and impressive, even though I only know about the Berlin Wall and some football stadiums in Germany before. After saw the book The Ghosts of Berlin I got more ideas about the buildings there. They are not just special or have very great designs outside, what's more, they telling us many stories about the place where they stand and the history about that city.

But I am still wondering that besides these features is there any significance of those architectures related to today citizens' life or even have particular value to all the people in the world. As we all know nowadays Berlin Wall is a memorial and is famous in all over the world as a symbol of the division of Berlin and of Europe in history. And I saw a picture on the book where a vender selling pieces of Berlin Wall at Brandenburg Gate. Why they did so? Is that only because of the popularity of Berlin Wall which can bring them money or Berlin Wall do influence today people's life there. I haven't got the answer out, so I will keep reading this book and try to figure them out.


"Every city and every country must weigh development against preservation. Why is Berlin special? Certainly not for its beauty or its state of preservation. Berlin is fascinating, rather, as a city of bold gestures and startling incongruities, of ferment and detraction."

This is another point get me interested in. How does Berlin balance and weigh development against preservation as a city under the burden of painful memories? I remember when I traveled along New York I saw an old building between two very modern and high buildings. That seems weird, so I think there must be some reason to keep that building. And what's the reason of remaining the architectures in Berlin. Why some of them disappeared in history? Why some are still living with us? I believe those landscapes never die. They are living and changing their significance with each passing day.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Where is next stop?

Just coming back from the service center, I got really tired. This is my first day being as a volunteer working with elementary school children. Kids are cute, but working well with them is not an easy thing. Most of their parents are immigrants just coming to US several years, so we need to help with their reading and english learning. I know only after couple of years they will be much better in this language, even much better than me, and also be farther and farther away from their original countries. Sometimes I admire them that they can come to this country when they are such young. They won't experience such huge language barrier as me, and most time the barrier is not the language itself but the feeling when you have trouble in communication. But other times I also appreciate this experience, it teaches me how to respect other people.

"Later, as I matured and travel around the country, there were the people who suffered because of the skin or class intone which they were born, or the way they had sex, or thought about it. And finally, as I have learned about the world, there are the folk on whom brutality descends because of their color, their native tongue, their religion, or the region of land to which their lives are staked."       -- Michael Eric Dyson

Before coming to US, I lived in a family with good living condition. I never thinking so much about race, class and such kind things. But now I can understand their suffering. When I read Guests And Aliens, I strongly approved some ideas in it.

"And for much of the twentieth century it has been recognized that refugees were unwilling departees, pushed by circumstances completely out of their control rather than by the desire for better opportunities in a rich country."      -- Guests and Aliens


Sometimes we can't choose our life. For example, I can't choose less credits classes for one quarter without thinking of the high tuition as a nonresident student; I can't choose a more interesting art major without thinking the language problem and if I can find the job or a working visa in the future. So as those immigrants, they moved from one country to another, but the irony thing is they still live hard doing low-wage staffs instead of changing their life into an ideal state.

I really love this topic about the migration. It brings me a lot of thoughts about my and my friends' life. I am excited with this trip going to Berlin. Even sometimes it brings me some troubles. Getting visas are really tough and troublesome. But anyway, do it and enjoy it! Come on!