the “angry-Saxon race”

It’s going to be a long week. I stayed up late last night to finish The Marrow of Tradition, so that’s one thing out of the way.

“ You had better put away these murderous fancies, Josh,” he said seriously. “ The Bible says that we should ‘ forgive our enemies, bless them that curse us, and do good to them that despitefully use us.’ ”

“ Yas, suh, I ’ve l’arnt all day in Sunday-school, an’ I ’ve heared de preachers say it time an’ time ag’in. But it ’pears ter me dat dis fergitfulniss an’ fergivniss is mighty one-sided. De w’ite folks don’ fergive nothin’ de niggers does. Dey got up de Ku-Klux, dey said, on ’count er de kyarpit-baggers. Dey be’n talkin’ ’bout de kyarpit-baggers ever sence, an’ dey ’pears ter fergot all ’bout de Ku-Klux. But I ain’ fergot. De niggers is be’n train’ ter fergiveniss ; an’ fer fear dey might fergit how ter fergive, de w’ite folks gives ’em somethin’ new ev’y now an’ den, ter practice on. A w’ite man kin do w’at he wants ter a nigger, but de minute de nigger gits back at ’im, up goes de nigger, an’ don’ come down tell somebody cuts ’im down. If a nigger gits a’ office, er de race ’pears ter be prosperin’ too much, de w’ite folks up an’ kills a few, so dat de res’ kin keep on fergivin’ an’ bein’ thankful dat dey ’re lef’ alive. Don’ talk ter me ’bout dese w’ite folks, — I knows ’em, I does !

(Chapter XII; p.113)

The next best thing, he reasoned, to having a woman love you, is to have her dislike you violently, — the main point is that you should be kept in mind, and made the subject of strong emotions.

(Chapter XVII; p.143-144)

Selfishness is the most constant of human motives. Patriotism, humanity, or the love of God may lead to sporadic outbursts which sweep away the heaped-up wrongs of centuries ; but they languish at times, while the love of self works on ceaselessly, unwearyingly, burrowing always at the very roots of life, and heaping up fresh wrongs for other centuries to sweep away.

(Chapter XXVIII; p.239)

Women’s Studies response postings have sucked me down into abundances of “i think.” I feel weary. My responses recently have actually been longer than they’re supposed to be, which (though one would hardly guess it from my LJ) is usually the exact opposite. Today we’ll be discussing Third Wave feminism and riot grrl and suchlike. I should be more excited about this than i am.

Yay for homework breaks involving figuring out how to play the complicated Buffy board game. It took playing a round to really understand how it all worked, and then we played another round. I nit-picked and reminisced and quoted, and it was fun.

I really should do homework right now instead of continuing to debate about the war, huh?