Qhq examples
- 1. QHQ student samples QHQ: Sui Sin Far’s “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” Q: Why am I having so much trouble connecting to the thoughts and writing of Sui-‐Sin Far? H: I have never in my life had to deal with the experience of not being part of the dominant race (dominant in numbers and nothing more) in society. Being white, it is difficult to come up with some connection to the experience of Sui-‐Sin Far. It feels like I have heard her story before from other authors who are of different ethnic backgrounds. The other problem is that I cannot connect to the people in the stories that are discriminating against people like Sui-‐Sin. Race, to me, has nothing to do with skin color. When I hear race, I immediately want to know who won, what the first place prize was and is there a chance that the victor used performance enhancing drugs. Discrimination has been around forever and will be around long after I am gone but there is really no place for it in the world. What is the point of denying someone some aspect of life because they do not look like everyone else? Don’t we all pee yellow and bleed red? I began to find a bit of a connection with Far because she, like me, finds that individuality is the most important thing. Even if we were all part of the same ethnicity or race, we would still be absolutely different based on our own individual differences. Although it is very meaningful to find comfort in knowing who we are and where we come from, it seems a side not to who we are going to be and where we are going. Maybe I am being ignorant (not purposely) or maybe my naive nature has yet again gotten the better of me but I believe we all truly can live together even among our most opposite differences. Of course my stance that it is easy to forget discrimination might not be so effortlessly accepted by an African American women in Louisiana who is the same age as my parents. Q: How is it possible for discrimination to slowly eliminate itself from society over time (although we know it will never be gone)? QHQ: Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars Q: Why or what triggered John to leave his home and family and start a new life? Was he pushed or forced away? H: John had higher expectations for himself. He knew what he wanted out of life and was not going to let the fact that he was of black origin stop him for reaching his goal of becoming a judge. He showed he had the willpower to change his life around and pass as a white man. He always saw himself as a white man from the beginning since his skin color was lighter. However society didn't accept him as such. So after seeking the help of judge Straight's he decided he would leave the town and start a new life as a white man. (The judge even though he was a white man, agreed to help John because he was friends with his father.) John was even more committed to do this because of his desire to become a judge. So, in fact no one force John out of town and his transition was made by himself for the sake of a better future. I thought it was a great point that john makes to the judge when he says he is white and the judge says "one drop of black blood makes a whole man black." and john replies "Why shouldn't it be the other way, if the white blood is so much more superior?" This shows how even though society didn't accept john as white, he knew that he was and was determined to pass as such.
- 2. QHQ student samples Q: If John left to reach his goals, why then did he return years later to take his sister away, even when this meant leaving his mother alone and running the risk of being discovered? QHQ: Morrison’s “Recitatif” Q: Between Roberta and Twyla, who is white and who is black? H: Throughout the entire story it is clear that these two characters are different races, however every other minute I am changing my mind on who is who. In the beginning of the story when Twyla and Roberta first meet and are put in a room together, Twyla immediately says that her mother won’t like her being put in a room with Roberta, and the reader is under the impression that it would be because Twyla is white and Roberta is black. Years later in the story when Twyla is working in the diner and Roberta walks in, the reader is lead to think that maybe Twyla is the African American because Roberta acts like a complete snob with her friends, and seems somewhat ashamed of talking to Twyla. There are many more incidents that occur between the two characters that make you continue to change your mind. Clearly that was the point of Toni Morrison’s story, to make the girls races ambiguous. I feel somewhat guilty of attaching stereotypes to the different races and using those stereotypes to help me figure out who is who. Maybe that is the whole point of Morrison’s story, to prove a point that it shouldn’t matter. Q: So now that I still have no idea which girl is which color, I ask myself, why should it even matter? QHQ: Hughes’s “Who’s Passing for Who?” Q: In “Who’s Passing For Who,” can the writers be mad that the Iowans pretended to pass? H: The writers can’t blame the writers for passing because they were the ones that gave them the idea in the first place. After learning of people passing, their curiosity got the best of them and it paid off. Getting upset for being tricked is hypocritical on the writer’s part as well. Although the writers were not passing as a different race, they were passing with different characteristics. Once the Iowans claimed that they were passing as whites, the writers “dropped their professionally self-‐ conscious negro manner.” They too were passing for something they weren’t. Their true character emerges when they thought they were around non-‐white people. After the Iowans decided to pass and the writers stopped passing, everyone had a more enjoyable time. Q: Why did the writers hate on Caleb so much?