Friday, May 22, 2020

Art of the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s was a time in Americas history of ferment, change, and sacrifice as many people fought, and died, for racial equality. As the nation celebrates and honors the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Jan. 15, 1929) on the third Monday of January each year, it is a good time to recognize the artists of different races and ethnicities who responded to what was happening during the years of the 50s and 60s with work that still powerfully expresses the turmoil and injustice of that period. These artists created works of beauty and meaning in their chosen medium and genre that continue to speak compellingly to us today as  the struggle for racial equality continues. Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the  Sixties at the Brooklyn Museum of Art In 2014, 50 years after the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, the Brooklyn Museum of Art hosted an exhibit  called Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties.  The political  artworks in the exhibit helped promote the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibit included work by 66 artists, some well-known, such as Faith Ringgold, Norman Rockwell, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, and others, and included painting, graphics, drawing, assemblage, photography, and sculpture, along with written reflections by the artists. The work can be seen  here  and here. According to Dawn Levesque in the article, Artists of the Civil Rights Movement: A Retrospective, The Brooklyn Museum curator, Dr. Teresa Carbone, was surprised at how much of the exhibits work has been overlooked from well-known studies about the 1960s. When writers chronicle the Civil Rights Movement, they often neglect the political artwork of that period. She says, its the intersection of art and activism.   As stated on the Brooklyn Museum website  about the exhibit: â€Å"The 1960s was a period of dramatic social and cultural upheaval, when artists aligned themselves with the massive campaign to end discrimination and bridged racial borders through creative work and acts of protest. Bringing activism to bear in gestural and geometric abstraction, assemblage, Minimalism, Pop imagery, and photography, these artists produced powerful works informed by the experience of inequality, conflict, and empowerment. In the process, they tested the political viability of their art, and originated subjects that spoke to resistance, self-definition, and blackness.† Faith Ringgold and the American People, Black Light Series Faith Ringgold  (b. 1930), included in the exhibit,  is a particularly inspirational American artist, author, and teacher who was pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement and is known primarily for her narrative quilts of the late 1970s. However, before that, in the 1960s, she did a series of important but less well-known paintings exploring race, gender, and class in her American People series (1962-1967) and Black Light series (1967-1969). The  National Museum of Women in the Arts  exhibited 49 of Ringgolds Civil Rights paintings in 2013 in a show called  America People, Black Light: Faith Ringgolds Paintings of the 1960s. These works can be seen  here. Throughout her career Faith Ringgold has used her art to express her opinions on racism and gender inequality, creating powerful works that have helped bring awareness of racial and gender inequality to many, both young and old. She has written a number of childrens books, including the award-winning beautifully illustrated  Tar Beach. You can see more of Ringgolds childrens books  here. See videos of Faith Ringgold on MAKERS, the largest video collection of womens stories, speaking about her art and activism. Norman Rockwell and Civil Rights Even Norman Rockwell,  the well-known painter of idyllic American scenes, painted a series of Civil Rights Paintings and was included in the Brooklyn exhibit. As Angelo Lopez writes in her article,  Norman Rockwell and  the Civil Rights Paintings, Rockwell was influenced by close friends and family to paint some of the problems of American society rather than merely the wholesome sweet scenes he had been doing for the Saturday Evening Post.  When Rockwell began working for Look Magazine he was able to do scenes expressing his views on social justice. One of the most famous was The Problem We All Live With, which shows the drama of school integration.   Arts of the Civil Rights Movement at the Smithsonian Institution Other artists and visual voices for the Civil Rights Movement can be seen through a collection of art from the Smithsonian Institution. The program, Oh Freedom!  Teaching African American Civil Rights Through American Art at the Smithsonian, teaches the history of the Civil Rights movement and  the struggles for racial equality beyond the 1960s through the powerful images that artists created. The website is an excellent resource for teachers, with descriptions of the artwork along with its meaning and historical context, and a variety of lesson  plans to use in the classroom.  Ã‚   Teaching students about the Civil Rights Movement is as important today as ever, and expressing political views through art remains a powerful tool in the struggle for equality and social justice.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Famine The Moral Code Of Ethics - 1181 Words

Famine is one of the most ongoing prominent problems facing the world currently. Today’s philosophers, Peter Singer and Onora O’Neill approach different methods from the moral code of ethics of Utilitarianism and Kantianism in face of famine. Severe food scarcity causes malnourishment and low stamina with no energy to pursue one’s aspirations of being more than just a statistic. In this paper, I will argue in favor of Onora O’Neill’s Kantian principles of justice and beneficence regarding our obligations during famine and to Peter Singer’s Utilitarian view, which should be considered an incorrect view of obligations to conquer famine. In regards to the topic of famine, O’Neill and Singer propose dissimilar perspectives. O’Neill says, â€Å"He or she would not be obligated to help the starving, even if no others were equally distressed† (540). While Singer says, â€Å"†¦it is not beyond the capacity of the richer nat ions to give enough assistance to reduce any further suffering to very small proportions. The decisions and actions of human beings can prevent this kind of suffering† (495). While it is extremely kind to continuously contribute help to others in need, whether it involves volunteering or submitting payments, a person should not be required to give until their own welfare becomes in danger. 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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Why and Why not Free Essays

James Bond or Agent 007 – famed for his cunning stratagems, brilliant stunts, and sex appeal –still remains as one of the biggest stars even after 22 movie portrayals, with five actors playing the lead role. The character was brought to life by the famous journalist, Ian Fleming, an intelligence officer for the MI6, a British Secret Intelligence Service. Part of his job was to mingle with various people of different races and of different languages (Last n. We will write a custom essay sample on Why and Why not or any similar topic only for you Order Now p). This is not a role played by Agent 007 alone; rather, this is a role played by many other intelligence officers working for agencies across the globe. Intelligence officers are people with highest levels of personal integrity and professionalism. Resilience, self-motivation, and the determination to achieve results are also part of their credo. They have excellent interpersonal and liaison skills. They are confident and able to interact with people from different races (Intelligence Officers n. p). Thus, the question as to how learning a foreign language may serve to the benefit or detrimental of intelligence officers is at hand. There are a number of reasons which point that learning a foreign language may be advantageous for intelligence officers. Although it is considered a common misconception that intelligence officers are required to learn or know a foreign language, it may be considered helpful if it were true (Intelligence Officers n. p). As their jobs involve intermingling with people of various races, which generally also speak in a different language, learning the language of the country or the person they are to interact with may make render communication smoother and much easier. There will also be less room for misunderstanding or a possibility for miscommunication. This may ease the investigation process and may make the job almost effortless (Putatunda n. ). A second advantage in learning a foreign language is that one can easily get the trust of a person from another race through their familiarity of language. In the case of intelligence officers, whose jobs involve having the ability to effectively interact with people of diverse cultures, a second language may be a great tool to gain people’s faith, especially if it is understood by the population that the officer will be working with. With the knowledge of their language, intelligence officers become more trustworthy in the eyes of the people who are under involved in certain cases or scenarios (De Bleu n. ). In addition, recent studies show that people who study a foreign language have higher scores in verbal standardized tests conducted in their primary language. There is also more willingness and ability to learn a third language, as well as an increase in their sense of identity while being sensitive to other cultures. This points that learning a foreign language may help intelligence officers learn another foreign language and culture easier. At the same time, it may also sharpen their skills in their own primary language. This may increase not only their intellectual capabilities but may also allow them to become more confident and capable, which is another benefit that is obtained from learning a foreign language (De Bleu n. p). Relative to an increase in the understanding of their own primary language, it has also been discovered that learning a foreign language helps in comprehending how language influences the shaping of thought patterns. Through learning another language, intelligence officers may become familiar to other cultures’ ways of expressing their ideas, and concepts. This may prove helpful as there is a probability that another cultures’ thought patterns are better than one’s own (Putatunda n. p). Another advantage of learning a foreign language is that it may give a feeling of security to intelligence officers. Security may result to better self-perspective and confidence. Being the main tool for communication, an intelligence officer equipped with the language necessary for the job, may invoke an assurance of job well done that may help build confidence and trust that anything is possible. This may make intermingling easier and smoother as there may be no room for nervousness and anxiety (De Bleu n. p). In accordance to the given bases, it may be said that learning a foreign language may have numerous advantages for intelligence officers. However, as other things that may be required for a job, it also has drawbacks. One of them is that it may not be easy for adults to learn a new language (Cohen n. p). Learning a new language involve activities that may be considered as mentally exhausting. The activities include memorization of new vocabularies, grammatical form or syntax. It also requires rehearsal or practice to sharpen the skills and to obtain the confidence to utilize what has been learned (Cohen n. p). For children who are just in the process of honing their primary language, inserting a new knowledge, such as a foreign language may be an easy job with the right strategies and proper guidance. However, with adults who have used their primary language for almost all their lives, acquiring a new knowledge that involves mentally-exhausting activities may be difficult, even with the right strategies. As such, requiring intelligence officers who are already adults may prove to be a disadvantage as it may consume a lot of effort and time both on the part of the officer and agency that he or she may be working for (Cohen n. p). In relation to the age, it has been found that learning a foreign language can sometimes become difficult, frustrating, and boring even to children who are interested to learn. This is a problem faced by parents who push their kids into learning another language other that his or her primary language. It becomes a waste of money and effort because any form of disinterest in the subject results to non-absorption of the things being taught (Andrews n. p) In the case of adults being pushed by employers to study, it may be considered a bigger problem as adults have more tendencies to get bored on things that should have been done when they were younger. As such, it may become disadvantageous for agencies to have their intelligence officers learn a foreign language (Andrews n. p). Another disadvantage of requiring intelligence officers to learn a foreign language is that it may become very expensive especially if it will be shouldered by the officers themselves. Since learning a new language may take time for adults, this also means it will eat up more sessions or classes and more classes means more payment. As long as the student is having a hard time absorbing the language being thought, the classes will continue leading to a need for more money to sustain the learning process (Cohen n. p). Even if learning a foreign language may be done on one’s own to prevent a great loss of money, there are still studies that show that trying to learn it on your own leave little room for improvement since there is no one available to answer queries that may arise in mind during the process. Also, it may consume more time as there is a possibility of losing self-discipline and motivation (Andrews n. p). Given the above information, it may then be concluded that requiring intelligence officers to learn a foreign language has both advantages and disadvantages that may be taken into consideration by agencies. One of its advantages is that it may make the jobs of intelligence officers easier as it enhances communication skills, interpersonal relations, and sensitivity to other cultures. It also increases intellectual capacity, and confidence resulting to better and reliable agents. However, there are also existing disadvantages that may make agencies think before requiring their officers to learn another language. There is the factor concerning the capacity of the officers to acquire new information with regard to the foreign language they are required to learn. Given that not all intelligence officers are fast learners, requiring an adult officer to learn a foreign language may involve consumption of great amounts of money, either from the agency or from the officers themselves. It may also require more time and effort that both parties may not be able to provide. As such, these should be taken into account and carefully contemplated before completely requiring intelligence officers to learn a foreign language. How to cite Why and Why not, Papers