Brownie's Book

I thought reading the passages from Brownie's book was very insightful. I liked the way that it addressed young children's problems and hardships of dealing with racism and descrimination. You could clearly see this in the letters the children wrote in to the magazine with issues that really bothered and distressed them. I was really surprised by how much pressure was placed on colored children to succeed and take opportunities thier ancestors were denied. Lines like "The only reward that yo'r unhappy fo'fathers ever will get is through you, an' if you fail, you disappoint yo'r whole race. (p. 35). When the little girl replied she echoed that pressure and said "I might have given up and been a failure and disappointment". As a teacher that made me cringe to think of a child calling themselves a failure and a disapointment. This pressure was also echoed in the poetry not only the stories. In th poem "Slumber Song" the last stanza states "You must nees be double true, Doubly strong in the task you do. Nor fail the Race that speaks in you, Brownie Boy." I think that the agenda of this magazine was very clear- to build up the next generation so that something like slavery won't happen again. I think that at the time it was probably necessary.

Passing Part II

This part of the story really delve deeper into the lives of the two main characters. It showed Irene's fears of her husband leaving to do what he really longs to do and her torment over making the "right" decision. It showed me how Irene seems to be stern about her opinions and strong about her choices yet inside she's really not as sure or secure as she pretends to be. It also showed how Clare is starting to act somewhat bitter over the choices she made for her life. It seems like in this second half Clare is running a huge risk and seems to not care anymore if she's caught. She longs so much to be back with and a part of the black community. Im very curious to see how the story plays out. I think that at this point Clare wont give up what she lost alreafy (her taste of being among her race) but she's worked so hard to gain security and passing for her and her daughter. Im very curious to see which she chooses.

The Gift of Laughter

Fauset's article was very intruiging to me. I'm not very familiar with plays and other forms of performing arts so the African American's role in acting was new to me. A few things that Fauset said stood out to me. One of them was "He was sad wih the sadness of hopeless frustration". In this articles Fauset showed us another area where the color of someones skill matters more than the talent and makeup of the person. African American actors and playwrites were limited by the role they were allowed to play; "His expansion was always upward but never outward". Once again thier actions were limited. I liked how Fauset showed how this can be and was worked around to show that the "funny man" was breaking with thier tragic past and that this can to be shown in thier role. In the end the gift of laughter was somewhat healing to them and Fauset believes it is a gift.