Make-ups

Week 6: Share something good about being native/being in native communities/going on in the native community (you can also share how it's not perfect, but just generally positive things)

One of the many wonderful perks of living in the native community house is definitely the impromptu stairwell conversations and community board. Being able to see people’s genuine, usually anonymous, and heartfelt passing thoughts as they ponder the question of the week really helps me to connect to both the struggles and highlights of my neighbors. As they usually pertain more specifically to the native community, I also feel like it encourages a constant learning (however small) of both the community as a whole, and how it is experienced with each individual person. Additionally, I really appreciate how people in the dorm remain “real” with one another as we pass by in the hallways. Instead of the typical “I’m good, you?” response usually given when asked how someone is, people really trust each other enough here to give more honest, authentic answers.

Week 8: your post should be about the story that you read from ​The Toughest Indian in the World​ or you can comment on anyone else's post

For my Week 8 makeup, I would like to comment on someone’s Week 8 post of an analysis of Sherman Alexie short story Class, specifically how it pertains to masculinity. In the post, the commenter mentions how “the story does not revolve around racial discrimination”, though I still wonder how it played a role. In far too many false and ludacris narratives is the identity of the Black man corrupted and twisted to nothing but an emotionless, beastly body, to a body with no brain that can only destroy, ravish, and work, to a predator who only chooses to prey upon “pure” white women because those of color are deemed less worthy, that it has actually affected reality, self-manifesting its very creation. I wonder if this is similarly true in this case of Edgar. I wonder what his attraction to Susan was in the first place, and where it came from, especially given she started cheating within the first year of marriage. I wonder if his masculine insecurities stem way before this marriage and the dilapidation of it thereafter; if rather, instead of being a result of his failed marriage, they are partially the cause and blame.

- Posted on behalf of Sean Howard