Blog Post 2

            During today’s class, we talked about the hangings of various offensive posters here at the University of Michigan. The posters included one that contained “scientific” evidence as to why white people are “smarter” than black people. Putting the actual event aside, I am extremely pleased that I have a class in which these events can be discussed. Postponing planned class material in order to discuss current events is something that my high school teachers emphasized greatly but have found elusive thus far here at Michigan. I am almost relieved that one of my classes is small enough to have real, intimate discussions despite straying from our planned material. Also, today’s discussion was particularly interesting for me because I had the privilege of hearing from perspectives of very different backgrounds to myself. My high school was composed of people of extremely similar backgrounds, so, while we had many captivating discussions, there was usually one governing perspective and, more often than not, a consensus.

            As we discussed in class today, around a week ago, a similar event happened at Eastern Michigan University. Someone did graffiti, which was a racial slur, on a brick wall. It is interesting that just this week we discussed graffiti in class. We discussed graffiti as social commentary, but where does one draw the line between social commentary and blatant vandalism? I am excited to explore graffiti even more in the coming weeks and to see its powers of criticism and, in this case, destruction.