ENGL1102 Notes
2/10/2012
“The Nig in Me” by Walter Mosley
· People often shy from discussing important topics because they do not want to be perceived as racist
o Can be avoided by respecting different opinions
o Always be open to discussing sensitive topics
o Try to embrace comfort
o Understand your audience, respect them, and think about what you want to say before you say it
o Don’t overgeneralize things
o Ask questions if something is unclear
· Discussion on “The Nig in Me”
o Not as cynical as Bell group
§ Bell said all the other people were against the African Americans, Mosley said a small group of radicals were causing trouble
§ Bell said that everyone only cared about themselves, Mosley showed that people did in fact care about others
§ Bell’s story seemed to have more extreme imagery, Mosley’s seemed more like a normal story
§ Bell’s human race was bad in many ways, not just racist
§ Bell seemed to oversimplify everything that was happening, showed that everything was going wrong.
§ Bell grouped people in very generalized groups, businesspeople, Jews, etc
§ While Space Traders just followed the story without characters, The Nig in Me took time to develop characters
§ Harold had a rebirth in the end, showing that things will recover.
· Other opinion is that nothing has changed even though most of the population has died. Racism will always exist
§ Bell’s story was more of an attack on the current population
§ Bell’s story was set in a world which was much closer to ours, while Mosley’s was a future world
o Points from as cynical as Bell group
§ Both had their own ways of showing cynicism
§ Bell contemplated the different angles and said that the end is dystopia, Mosley said that humans will slowly be stripped down until dystopia
§ Both showed a large divide between the races
§ People were self-serving in both stories
§ Both show how close to reality these societies are
§ Mosley’s ending is cyclical, so everything bad will never stop
§ Both say that things will get bad quickly
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