Emily- Constant Crisis

I have only one really vivid memory during the months of April and early May, the weekend of May 1st. I was only connected to the world outside of the middle of Brooklyn through Instagram and twitter and the larger net. I had a bike that could only take me so far.
The weekend of May 1st was unforgettable. In lower Manhattan, white people filled parks with picnic gear and sunscreen to enjoy their lovely day in the sun that they believed they earned and deserved after being locked up for so long.
In Brownsville, Black folks sitting outside got beat up by multiple police officers.
While cops handed out masks to white people by the pier, I was assaulted by a police officer for recording them harassing Black Flatbush residents outside their homes. The cops maks was under his nose. I was paranoid for the next two weeks that because of him I'd be sick.

Sometime between the gensis and and the peak, Deblasio told people to call police, a hotline or whatever, if people weren't socially distancing or wearing masks. My boyfriends neighbor did it. I told my boyfriend he's probably been waiting on any excuse to call the cops on two young Black guys since he met your family. Who knew the excuse would be that there were people skating outside on their recetly closed off street who weren't social distancing.

I've never lived in a revolution, in a pandemic, in a recession before. But somehow, it didn't feel like anything new was happeneing, more like everything was happening all at once. Suddenly the curtain was pulled back when our daily distarctions were stopped, and people were forced to see regular shit.
" [Insert inhumane, unjust, racist, classists treatment] is happening... DURING A PANDEMIC", is what I heard and said a lot. But the truth always was that white supremacy and capitlaism never stops, it only comes harder when it is threatened.

Did I forget that white people pulled up to state capitol's with guns and no masks to protest being told to wear masks to stop a raging global pandemic from spreading and killing people? Did I forget that nothing ever happened to them? Did I forget that there is more martyrs from Black Lives Matter rebellions than arrests of murderer cops? Did I forget that cops and landlords work together to kick out, belittle, humilate and violate tenants when people can't pay because they're unemployed? Did I forget Black Trans women die everyday, and coronavirus didn't stop that?
I didn't forget, but I try to.

For immigrant communities, coronavirus is a different king of threat

Hello everyone,

For the format of my project I have decided to follow in the footsteps of nytimes interactive magazine - COVID quarantine sorrow. The structure of every entry on the magazine is incredibly powerful and very personal. So much so that I feel inspired to share a couple of my own journal entries from when lock down had just begun to when things started to get really grim not just for me, but for everyone in my family and community. What I am having issues with is not knowing where or how to integrate the academic research aspect of this project into my personal entries.

4/21/2020 Entry

I mentioned during one of the zoom calls a few weeks ago that we had moved to my partner's parents' home in Western Massachusetts. In part, to escape the coronavirus in NYC but also to move to a space with more room so that the three of us wouldn't be at our throats in our 1.5 bedroom apartment. We considered a few things before getting here that was anxiety-inducing. We were worried that we would be stopped at the Massachusetts border by police or national guard because of our New York state plates. In actuality, the car that I rented from Hertz had Mass plates, a fact that we didn't realize upon returning the vehicle. We also worried that when we got to the house that the neighbors wouldn't be friendly and would consider us to be carriers of the virus into their delightful little cul-de-sac. Though this a refuge for me, I miss being able to go to my local bar and wax on about philosophy and going on strolls through the park. I also feel guilty of being able to escape as a black man as people of color are disproportionately affected by the virus.

The fear and hope that I'm researching coincide with the sense of optimism, but through this poem, I feel I've expressed mostly the pessimism that consumed me. A real concern of how long the plateau will last. Will our lack of social systems create the unrest that we are witnessing in the states that our President on twitter called on to liberate themselves? The title refers to the period of peak admittances to NYC hospitals that we needed to get past. 

Fortnite

We escaped to the land of hills and valleys

Hoping we are not traveling Typhoid Mark and Marys

Gawked like a hawk from our windows at

The Neighbors

Not nearly belabored by our thoughts that stalked

Our memories of

Bar banter between

Sweet saunters between swings at the park

In the meantime hoping the curve is streamlined

And that in a fortnight the urban sprawl 

Doesn’t resemble Fortnite. 

4/17/2020

I tried to do the PowerPoint first, but I found it difficult to continue after a few slices, and everything looked messy. So I decided to change my mind. I write Professor Chang's research report. I decided to finish the research report first and then find ideas from the research report to write PowerPoint. But all of these have encountered difficulties. I don't know why. All my Professors started to send homework. I have lots of online classes, and I need to write other homework. But I am a person who can't manage time well, so I am still experimenting with ways to make me focus on my work. My theme for the role that Mermaid's play in the cultural imagination of China, or Japan, or the Euro-American world almost the same. In  China, Euro-American, and Japan, Mermaid is legend, myth, who accompany with mysterious, beautiful, slaughter, and love. In ancient times, Mermaid in China, Euro-American, and Japan is living things use her/his voice to lure the man and kill them. In the other side, human aways seeks to them because Mermaid's beautiful, because of their power. And right now, there were some news or information that report human already found some Mermaid, thought all those reporting, the final ending of Mermaid is sent to the lab doing the research.Moreover, like Disney, or other films, television,  Mermaid is a hook of Capitalism to earn money. And due to all the research I have done, I discover, all the characters are female. Even in the film or other places, the Mermaid is female. Whatever in ancient times or modern times, the Mermaid was used their beauty to lure the people, just like people give the woman a value by their beauty.

The Process of This Week

Now, I have started making the PowerPoint. At the same time, I am also writing the research report that requires by Professor Chang. Then I read several Chinese ancient articles about mermaids. Furthermore, I read Western articles about mermaids too. When I was doing the resource search, some pieces that I find are news reports, the authenticity of those reports remains to be verified. Secondly, I also used One Search in our school library system to find the information and try sorted those resources out. In the mermaid materials of Western literature, progress is relatively fast. In Chinese mermaid literature, I was getting stuck on it. Because the way of writing of ancient Chinese books is different from the current writing methods, they are stuck on the issue of translation to a certain extent. One of the old articles was written in the early Qin period, and it is difficult to translate its meaning. But after I finished talking with Professor Chang this morning, and I have already found my way. Moreover, after I finish watch Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo, I explore that Mermaid is one kind of remarkable Legend, myth, and symbol for Japan. This week, I will concern about the comparison between western and eastern literature about Mermaid.

In the last week, I have been in the process of translating the work I had already completed into the new discussed product of my research and doing the necessary additional research to compensate for the change in direction. It's been tough to adapt to the changes. Not only the changes of my project but the new dynamic of having work, school and family life be all on the same stage and often happening all at the same time. However, I'm finding what works and what does not. I'm hoping I find a groove before it begins to make an impact.
This week I took a focus on the origins of Afro-Brazilian Poetry, this art form is closely linked to history and culture. I've been diving into work in order to connect the cosmology of divine poetry, the historical context and the cultural diaspora that needs to be considered. In order to do this I've read many articles but have really found this particular article helpful: Steven F. White's "Reinventing a Sacred Past in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Poetry." White's work has elements of the divine, history and culture.
Since Professor Byam would like out blog post project to move through element by element I've decided that my first piece will be of the genesis of poetry in Brazil and it's meaning for the enslaved Africans. Much like the spirituals of the south, the poetry allowed for knowledge and spirituality the slave masters could not control. Interestingly, Brazilian's isolation of Africans allowed for the out pour of melancholia to remain distinctly African compared to North American black art of that era.  I think its incredibly meaningful and important, so I'll be starting there and fleshing out some of the work I've already written.

29 March 2020 Entry

In the past week, I've written an explication on the first few chapters of Martha Nussbaum's book The Monarchy of Fear, which discusses how fear disrupts agency in contemporary politics. It also draws on Greek philosophers like Lucretius and Aristotle. This week I will read the chapter that is focused on hope and compile the most important aspects to add to my philosophical framework. 

I'm also considering analyzing the fear and hope relationship in the Hegelian dialectic as well as applying black existentialist philosopher Frantz Fanon's ideas on the topic. I've recently read Black Skin, White Masks, and I'm hoping his concepts will tie in well with what I want to examine. My program mentor Alexandria has also provided me with a lot of black existentialist literature and some useful research tips and motivation.

I've been looking into some statistic data on what people in America fear the most, how they voted, and also how the conservative mind is more prone to fear than others.

Working with Professor Steinberg has allowed me to have some sense of how academics analyze contemporary political issues mainly through the philosophy of Spinoza. I've also had the opportunity to examine his essays and book excerpts, made suggestions to add or omit things.  

I started reading The Plague by Albert Camus written in 1947, and many of the same issues that he explores in the book hold true today; the reluctance of government officials to take seriously warning signs, citizens not adhering to social restrictions. It's a very, easy, relatable, and I must say eerily prophetic book to read.