The 90's and 9/11

During the past week or so in American Studies, we have been studying about the various events that took place in the 1990's. We have finished studying about the 50's and 60's. But we are still continuing to watch student presentations on various topics. These topics include various subtopics under either the Cold War or the Civil Rights Movement. My video was about the Indo-Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971. The wars dealt with the Cold War and the involvement of the USA and the USSR. But, we also moved on to the conflict happening in middle Europe, with Serbia and its surrounding countries. We also talked about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City on September 11th, 2001. We talked about what happened, but also what happened as a result of the the attacks. As a result of the attacks, the general American populous began a certain distaste of Muslims around the world. There was some discrimination happening across the country. That is the sad reality. However, the USA became more united as a result of the attacks, and bonded together even more to fight the terrorists. But, as a Muslim living in the USA, problems were evidently there. Whether that be in airports and the TSA random checks, or just blatant racism online or wherever.

Videos and Maus

During this week in American studies, we watched the student presentations on the 60's and 70's. My video was about the Ind-Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971. It dealt with the Cold War aspect of the presentations rather than the civil rights movement aspect. The United States had sided with Pakistan, while the USSR had taken the side of India. The other topics that students had done dealt with other aspects of the Cold War and the Civil Rights movements. They were very interesting because there were many different factors and events that made up both of these topics as a whole. In American Literature, we have been reading Maus. Maus is a personal narrative written by Art Spiegelman on his fathers past experiences. It deals with the struggles of being a Jewish citizen in Europe and tells the horrible recounts of the concentration camps. This also tied into American Studies, because we had just moved on from the end of World War 2, so it's a good story for our understanding as we progress throughout US history. Spiegelman uses a constant metaphor in the graphic novel. He portrays the Jews as mice, and the Nazis as cats, and it is interesting to unpack the use of the metaphor because it can be interpreted in many ways. One way can be the cover of the book, It shows a cat with striking resemblance to Hitler, the enemy of the Jews, creating the fight between cat and mouse

1920's

During the past week in American Studies, we have been discussing the 1920's and all of the different events and things take took place during the 1920's. We were assigned presentations and each group had a different event or topic that involved the 1920's. My group was assigned National Politics, and it involved foreign affairs and the depression that was taking place at the end of the 1920's. My part in the group was to talk about President Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression in comparison to the recession that took place in 2008. When I was studying about President Hoover, I found out many interesting things about him. I learned that he wanted a private economy, in which the U.S. government does not involve itself with businesses and the economy. But due to Great Depression, his vision was not able to manifest itself. Also, a few groups presented their presentations, on Women's Rights and Civil Rights involving different races in the country. It was interesting to see the presentation on racism because in American Literature we are reading a book dealing with black literature, Their Eyes Were Watching God. It gives a unique perspective to racism during the era.