Author: abdullahi.82

Text Review: Bud, Not Buddy

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Bud, Not Buddy tells the narrative of a young Black child on the lookout for his father, whom he has never met. Bud flees from a harsh existence in Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in search of his father, using clues from the few belongings he carries that belonged to his mother. Bud first appears in the 1930s as a ten-year-old living at a facility for orphaned children in Flint, Michigan. Bud was sent to the Home when he was six years old, after discovering his mother dead on the floor of her bedroom. After four years or so since Bud Caldwell’s mother died, and the ten-year-old is leaving his third foster home in pursuit of a better life. He’s tired of being an orphan: unloved, rejected, and alone. He discovers how difficult life is in Michigan in 1936, during the Great Depression, on his own. Along the way, he meets many nice individuals who assist him in completing his most incredible quest: to discover the man he believes to be his father. He’s looking for a man whose photo was on some old jazz concert fliers his mother had lying around the home, so he doesn’t have much to go on. However on his quest, he discovers what it really is like being a POC during this time.

Bud, despite his age, has a good understanding of race and how it functions in society, as seen by his question to Deza Malone, a young girl that Bud meets in Hooverville about why some white people in Hooverville were “off alone.” Deza responds that it’s because they claim that they “ain’t in need of a handout” because they’re white. In other words, they’re safe due to the color of their skin while Bud and Deza can’t. Throughout Bud’s quest to find his father, he must be extra careful especially because Bud would often travel through the night. He however did have to face these encounters while on this trip. And I’ma tell you, “I’ve seen some things out of place before, and a young brown-skinned boy walking along the road just outside of Owosso, Michigan, at two thirty in the morning is definitely not where he ought to be.” (10.18) This is an example of how late/early Bud goes on these adventures but this is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel. “The policeman looked at me and said, “Oh. Your grandson, huh? You two look just alike.” (12.46) The other person this policeman is comparing Bud is a character named Lefty who isn’t Bud’s grandfather or even related for that matter.

 

Racism in Football (Soccer)

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I’ve already discussed racial unfairness in sports, notably soccer, but this is another event from earlier this year that has lately received an update. UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has ended an investigation into “alleged” racist abuse by thousands of CHILDREN towards a Black player during a Europa League match. What struck me first was not the fact that the investigations had been halted, but the fact that the perpetrators were CHILDREN. We can now understand that the root of the problem of social unfairness is childhood. Education, like the peer question from two modules ago, must be pounded into the youngsters in order to teach them. It might not completely eliminate the problem, of course it wouldn’t, but it’s a good step forward. In this way, it eliminates single stories of stereotypes. Many individuals who have been affected by racial injustices have said they became more insecure of how they stand out and in this example, quite a few soccer players have come forth and spoke about their experiences. A player who spoke about their story on this topic is Adebayo Akinfenwa. His story reminds me of Ortiz Cofer’s “The Story of My Body” and they’re some similar scenarios. He’s an African English soccer player and he shared his story of the racial abuse he suffered while playing and living in Lithuania. It won’t totally solve the problem, of course, but it’s a start in the right direction. As a result, single stories of stereotypes are eliminated. Many people who have been touched by racial injustices have stated that they have become more self-conscious about how they stand out, and many soccer players have stepped forward to share their stories. Adebayo Akinfenwa is one of the players that has spoken about their experience with this topic. His account reminds me of Ortiz Cofer’s “The Story of My Body,” and there are some parallels between the two stories. He’s an African English soccer player who opened up about the racial harassment he faced in Lithuania while playing and living there. He talked about how he stood out from the throng and that even his own admirers teased him. He’d reflect and say, “It still crumbles me to this day.” During the 2018-19 season, which ran from September to July, Kick It Out, England’s anti-racism and pro-inclusion sports organization, released statistics showing that reports of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, and race increased by 32% from the previous season, from 319 to 422. Racist abuse directed at athletes isn’t the only issue. Along with racist occurrences, anti-racism organizations have long chastised soccer’s regulating bodies for their sluggish responses and insufficient punishments, blaming the sport’s regulatory bodies for paying lip service to the problem but failing to lead in eradicating it. Both FIFA and UEFA, the world’s soccer governing bodies, have rebutted those claims, blaming the growth of nationalism and reaffirmed their own promises to combat racism.Video | Kick It Out

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12105693/black-london-footballers-pioneers-cage-games-and-setbacks

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12117722/adebayo-akinfenwa-on-racist-abuse-suffered-during-lithuanian-ordeal

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/racism-soccer-epidemic-mirrors-disturbing-trends-europe-advocates/story?id=67850877

History of the Partition and it’s connection to Interpreter of Maladies (Week 12)

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The partition of the Indian subcontinent (India and Pakistan) in 1947 left an everlasting mark on the Indian people’s mentality. It also resulted in the partition of Pakistan in 1971, resulting in the formation of two new countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Partition, which was intended to prevent sectarian violence, instead inflamed tensions between Hindus and Muslims by forcing them to divide. During and after the partition, millions of people are forced to move with the hope of a better life in a foreign place. Immediately, one of the world’s largest migrations occurred, with millions of Muslims migrating to West and East Pakistan (later known as Bangladesh), and millions of Hindus and Sikhs migrating in the opposite direction. Hundreds of thousands of people never made it. It is self-evident that incidences resulting from division breed hate among the people of the Indian Subcontinent. It also passes on from generation to generation throughout the course of each decade.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies is one of those diasporic short story collections that deals with displaced immigrants and second-generation characters. Characters in this collection of short stories face a variety of diasporic issues, including miscommunication, nostalgia, solitude, hatred, fractured cultural identity, psychological issues, and traumatic experiences. In addition, via this collection of short stories, Lahiri beautifully depicts the division and its aftermath. The stories focus on the transfer of memory and the observation of the diaspora’s second generation. The first generation are made up of those who have been victims of traumatic occurrences, while the second generation are made up of those who observe or witness the prior generation’s incidents or suffering. In the story, Mr. Das also reveals that their parents now live in India and that the Das family visits them every few years. The stories’ narrations reveal a later generation of diaspora’s awareness of the history of partition and its tragic experience.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple

https://www.gradesaver.com/interpreter-of-maladies/study-guide/the-partition-of-india-1947