“You, the white people, invented race”: Now Ask Yourself Why!

Category: bloodline

When most people think about racism and oppression they think about the oppressed. They think about individuals who live under the heel of the oppressor. They think about the atrocities that the oppressor commits. They think about the acts of resistance against the oppressor. They do this and then they label it “the Negro problem” or “the Jewish question,” placing the onus of the … Read More “You, the white people, invented race”: Now Ask Yourself Why!

February 4, 2025 + african american literature, bloodline, ernest j gaines, Literature, louisiana literature, the sky is gray

“Critical Consciousness” and Pedagogy in Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray”

by Matthew Teutsch

During my educational career, I sat in countless classroom regurgitating information back to the one at the head of the classroom who held my grades and my future in their hands. I felt, for the most part, disconnected from any of my experiences or reality. That does not mean that the information I learned did not relate to my life; it just means that … Read More “Critical Consciousness” and Pedagogy in Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray”

March 5, 2020 + a gathering of old men, bloodline, charles chesnutt, ernest j gaines, frank yerby, harper lee, lillian e smith, now is the time, to kill a mockingbird

What keeps us from acting?

by Matthew Teutsch

Lillian Smith wrote Now is the Time (1955) in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Smith saw the decision as every child’s Magna Carta, and in Now is the Time, she laid out that in order to move forward, we must act. The book, in essence, as Rose Gladney and Lisa Hodgens put it, “crystallized approximately two decades … Read More What keeps us from acting?

January 21, 2019 + a gathering of old men, african american literature, american literature, bloodline, copper laurent, ernest j gaines, frank laurent, interracial intimacy, interracial marriage, louisiana literature, of love and dust, southern literature, Uncategorized

Interracial Intimacy in Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline”

by Matthew Teutsch

As I read Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline” recently, the interactions between ‘Malia and Frank Laurent stood out. The story, essentially, centers around Copper, the son of Frank’s brother Walter who raped Copper’s mother. Copper has returned to the Laurent plantation to claim what is his, by birth. Essentially, he arrives to overthrow the system that denies him an existence due to the fact that his … Read More Interracial Intimacy in Ernest Gaines’ “Bloodline”

October 8, 2015 + african american literature, american literature, bloodline, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, leadbelly, nirvana, southern literature, the autobiography of miss jane pittman

Playing Around the Note: Leadbelly and Me

by Matthew Teutsch

Statue of Leadbelly in downtown Shreveport, LA “Man, this sucks,” I remember thinking as the sounds of a tin can voice and guitar made their ways to my ears. Sitting on that stool in Blockbuster Music, I did not fully understand why the artist I was currently listening to had such a huge impact on the band that helped to define my musical palette. … Read More Playing Around the Note: Leadbelly and Me

Interminable Rambling

“You, the white people, invented race”: Now Ask Yourself Why!

Category: bloodline