Stayin' Alive R U ?

     . . . . Woke to it being cold again, due to snowstorm in New England.  Thank goodness amiga Eliza and her family are still OK in their Vermont family home, though still not having that much wifi -- shestill  drives to the deserted high school campus about 6 miles away, and sits in her car with her devices to teach her five Distance Courses for the University of Chicago and the New School. She's looking forward to it being warm enough that she can sit outside at one of the HS's campus picnic tables to do this.

One of E's distance learning students wrote this essay, re Disney's The Princess and the Frog, employing copious Sublette quotes.  

Week Eleven: Viewing/Reading Responses for New Orleans in Lit, TV & Film.A.Sp20.Online:

Hi everyone,
Hope you're all doing alright!!

The Princess and the Frog is a film I'd seen many times before because my younger sister has always loved it. After completing this weeks readings, I re-watched the film through a completely new lens and so many issues jumped out at me.

I immediately noticed how segregation was prevalent in the restaurant where Tiana works. Although there were black and white customers, none of them were seated together. Tiana and her mother are also shown sitting at the back of the street car, and of course, at around 24 minutes, Mr. Fenner reveals that Tiana was outbid but consoles her by saying "...a little woman of your background would have had her hands full trying to run a big business like that." All of these issues contribute to the intersection of socio-economic class and race that show up throughout the film.

While the instances of segregation and Mr. Fenner's blatantly rude/racist/sexist remark both make historical sense for the time, since the movie is based on a fairytale and is totally imaginary and up to the discretion of Disney to create—why not either create an incredibly rich and diverse movie that can be fantastical and fun, or, actually take the time to dive into the issues that are so clearly present? "From Edwards' perspective, "the forces were against Tiana [her]—it could be sexism, racism, classism. But we didn't want this story to be one that teaches people about racism," (Gregory 443-444). If the movie isn't meant to teach people about racism, then racism should not be included. Disparity runs rampant and it is so obvious visually how racism plays a role in the version of New Orleans that Disney specifically chose to create. The La Bouff mansion is juxtaposed with Tiana's neighborhood in the Ninth Ward "...without questioning or problematizing the socio-economic disparity or difference encoded within the streetcar journey between the two," (Turner 85). I thought that was problematic as well. Unless a little kid (the films target audience) asks their parent about these inequities, how are they expected to learn? Most of the more serious offenses took place in the beginning of the film, so that by the end you're left with the "happily ever after" mentality, which is incongruent with history.

I also noticed that Prince Naveen's character spoke an imaginary language at times and was from a made up place, Macedonia. With such a rich history of immigration, I didn't understand why Naveen could not have been from a real country like Haiti or Cuba when the film was set in a real city anyways. As Ned Sublette wrote in The World That Made New Orleans, “...the uniqueness of New Orleans owes in no small part to its rapid succession of three distinct colonial eras, each with its own ruling European language and distinct associated African world,” (Sublette 277). Because some aspects of reality, like jazz, were incorporated into the film, the line is blurred between fantasy and what life was really like in the 1920s south. Disney "...uses The Princess and the Frog to make jazz (and therefore blackness) more accessible to its white audience," but this form of "blackness" is very particular and easily commercialized (Gregory 441).

In terms of what we read from The World That Made New Orleans, I was very struck by the idea that “Whether Jefferson exercised his option or not, he could have sex with Sally Hemings whenever he wanted. The matter of consent was irrelevant, because she could not refuse. Because that’s what slavery was,” (Sublette 216). I thought this was such a blunt way of putting things but very necessary to get the severity of the point across. Following this, it was insane to realize that although under Jefferson some slaves could learn how to read, writing was prohibited “...because if they could write, they could forge passes to leave the plantation,” (Sublette 216-217). That is just pure evil!! It makes it so clear that slave owners knew perfectly well how poorly they were treating slaves and knew if they taught them to write they would essentially try to escape.

In relation to The Princess and the Frog, I couldn't help but to think about Tiana's own lighter-skinned appearance when I read that “The market term for young, light-skinned sex slaves was fancy girls. It was the most notorious, and the most profitable, segment of the slave trade,” (Sublette 237).

Looking forward to reading everyone's responses to this week's content. Sending love and California sunshine to everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night slept well. After about four nights in a row of less than 5 hours of sleep, and not consecutively, last night I must have been out well before 11 PM. Was awake only once, when el V roused me from a nightmare, about 11:45. It seems rubbing the CBD Freeze lotion into the lower back at bedtime works really well in combination with the CBD Rich Tincture EC sent.The sub labial tincture I do when drinking breakfast tea. As far as workouts go, I’m almost 100% again with weights, stretches, cardio-respiratory and reps. One more session to go and I’ll be there. That’s four sessions now. Not too bad, since I only resumed on April 3rd, after March 6th last workout. In any case, whatever the reasons, thank the lordessa that yesterday wasn't Wednesday. That was a horrible, awful, heebie jeebies utterly terrifying day.

In this AM's email received an inquiry as to our well being, this one from a woman who often handles my research library borrowing requests: "You are far and away our favorite patron, always interesting, always paying attention and never giving anybody a hard time, instead making us all feel good about ourselves and what we do."

el V, however, didn't sleep at all, so stressed. Now he's in an online conference on Cuba for an hour and a half.  He won’t stay off the computer for anything.  He should be exercising.  His blood pressure and reflux are off the charts. We have a blood pressure measuring device now and it says so.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Post Office is seriously in trouble; chiefbloodonhishands refuses to allow them any assistance. Hey, no voting by mail -- make all the Dems stand in long lines and get sick and die, you betcha!

It does look as though the post office will collapse early this summer, without federal rescue. I've written several papers as to the historical background as to why the rethugs have been trying to destroy the United States Post Office since the days of Nixon, when he removed the Constitutionally mandated Post Office as a Cabinet Agency.

Goddamn! even Genghis Khan organized a government postal service because without one his empire would soon collapse. According to the international criteria to be a nation state, there must be a postal service. So the news remains grim and deadly, for the whole country and particularly for New York City.

They are waging war and massacre upon us via bio-chemical means.  They may not have invented and released covid-19, but They know how to take advantage of it to increase and consolidate Their power.