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OVERVIEW: The reading for today's class, Mixed Blood Stew, is a memoir--nonfiction, a true story--of the author's search to understand who she is as a mixed-race person in white-dominant culture. She explores her relationship with her mother as well as with her grandmother in various memories she has of each of them (as well as other relatives). The way these memories are codified in the essay are by considering archival material. DETAILS: For this set of Reader's Notes, first, please try to identify what those archives are. I'm using that term broadly, so don't freak out if can't immediately see all of them. Don't worry if you aren't sure. Take a guess. And 2) try to tell me what the author wants us to understand about race--in her own life and in her mother's and the other family in her life. Try to connect what the author is trying to make you understand (the thesis) through the evidence she gives us (the archives). Don't worry if you aren't at 250 words. If you are struggling to get to 250 words, there are a lot of ideas for how to get to that number (which is really not a lot) in the Reader's Notes, assignment page. But, no matter what, post what you come up with and we'll work together in class to get to the full 250 words. REMEMBER: I can't help you get better at this if I don't see work to begin with. Can't find the essay on the syllabus? Here is a copy: 
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13 Comments
Alexis Maldonado
10/1/2020 05:35:29 pm
The story is talking about a lady who is learning a lot of history about her family as well as living through the struggles of being African American. The story talks about how her grandmother and grandfather felt as well as her own mother. She also talks from her own experience and what she is thinking and feeling. The archives in this story are a package, auction sheet, and newspaper. The package was of the family and the auction sheet of people being sold. The newspaper had a picture of the actual grandfather who was white. What the author wants us to understand about her race is that she may be of color, but her history isn’t. Her mom didn’t think being of color was the problem but the history of why is. The history of colored people being slaves is what really bothered her mother. The author on the other is hand very proud of what she is.
miah poindexter
10/1/2020 09:35:56 pm
Jewel parker Rhodes writes about her background and how she feels about her ethnic background. She finds archives such as a treasure trove of documents containing birth certificates, social security cards, paycheck stubs, blurred photos of her mother and others. She also uses the stories that she was able to gather from her grandmother and grandfather who liked to talk about where they came from and give her different stories on their background. Unlike her mother who didn’t like her talking about it or didn’t even like her going through the things. Rhodes tries to get us to understand that race is more than a color. She explains how there are so many different kinds of blacks or colored people from all over Africa and the different tribes. She doesn’t feel that race is all about color and she is not afraid t embrace both sides of her mixed self being that her ancestors were slaves which were given babies by their masters, the white and the black. Whereas her mother feels like she can’t “fit in” or “relate” to any side of her ethnic background. She feels misplaced. But she does say that she is not bothered by being black, but it is the fact that she has a slavery background that bothers her. Rhodes talks about how her mother is so different from her and how she feels that maybe it is because she gave her up when she was only an infant and didn’t reconnect with her till she was nine, and maybe that is why they are so. Different. Rhodes just tries to get us to understand that there is so much more ethnic backgrounds to her and her family, and there is still so much more that she doesn’t know.
Wicahpi Chaddlesone-Yankton
10/2/2020 01:25:49 am
The story which is called “Mixed-Blood Stew” is about a writer named Jewell Parker Rhodes mixed blood and lineage in her family. When she was a child, she started to question more about her family's lineage to understand her family better. She learns that her family does support and talk about being a part of different lineages and they just don’t belong to one racial group. She first starts by looking at a treasure of different archives that has documents which include birth certificate, social security numbers, paycheck receipts, photos, and a slave ownership flyer about her family. She had asked her grandmother about them and her grandmother does give her the different stories about their blood and how they all look different in many ways. But the weird thing is that her mother tends to not talk about or acknowledge it and thinks she doesn’t understand the issues of being a mixed person. It seems that each family member tends to describe their blood lineage and the struggles and issues but also give her a history of their blood and where it comes from. So I feel that at a very young age, she had learned that not everyone comes from the same blood lineage and others tend to come from different backgrounds and lineage from all over the world. I like the part where she happens to mention “Native American” lineage because we tend to come from different tribes and we tend to follow every lineage as best we can and we follow the blood lineage where we grow up. I like the end of “Mixed-Blood Stew” because she realizes that everyone could relate to being a part of more than one blood lineage.
Colm McDonough
10/2/2020 06:17:31 am
Mixed Blood Stew follows Jewell Parker Rhodes about being “mixed blood”. As she grew older she grew more curious of where she and her family came from. Reading through birth certificates, photos and other archives. She learns her family is very mixed. They are black however they still have white heritage in them and history with slaves. She comes to the realization that everybody is mixed and even their white tormentors could have traces of black heritage in their bloodline. But some people deal with it differently. For example her mother is not really comfortable having her history as it is. But Jewell is really proud and shows it. Something I didn't really understand from my first read was that their whole family was black. I was a little confused at first but now I think I’m good. It kinda seemed her mother was scared of her past and what it meant to the white community during this time. There were still large amounts of racism which possibly forced her mother to hold back. As if she had given up and came to the acceptance that her past should make her feel guilty. Jewell, was the complete opposite. We see she liked to be rebellious and was proud of where she came from and eager to teach others. What I liked in this was how we saw, even though she was black in America during a rough time, Jewell was still a hippie and followed the “rebellious” teens. Still facing racism and questioning her past it didn’t stop her from moving forward.
Allyson Spencer
10/2/2020 06:48:57 am
This story is about a girl named Jewell Parker Rhodes who is looking to find out more about her family history. Growing up she always wondered about her family. After searching through her mother’s things, she found a package with letters, and an auction sheet. She also finds social security numbers, photos, birth certificates. Her mother did not like looking at the history and seeing all the documents, just because she did not like where she came from. Jewells grandmother is a mixed baby of rape. Her grandmother often told her stories about the past and that is where Jewell found even more information about her background. There are so many people like Jewells mother who feel like they cannot express themselves because of the color of their skin or even just their background. Jewell talks about how there are so many different kinds of people and how colored people come from all different types of tribes. Jewell is proud of who she is and where she came from. To her, race is not just about the color of your skin. Her mother feels that since she is both black and white, she doesn’t belong anywhere. Jewell is trying to get people to understand that your history does not define who you are.
Emily Bachman
10/2/2020 07:22:44 am
This story is about a girl finding out her history with slavery. She finds this slavery auction post that was part of her family's history. In this story, the main character seems to have had a flashback to when her mother was still alive and when she had found the auction sheet. In one of the paragraphs on the second page it was talking about how her mother had died so I figured the part at the very beginning was some sort of flashback to an important time in her life. Her paternal grandmother was the one who took care of her all of the years that her mother was not in her life. Her mother had abandoned her for 9 years but then came back to her. So of course, the main character in this story would be curious to find out more about herself. That’s why she went and looked through a box of old stuff in her mother’s closet because it could maybe tell her what her family was all about. Her mother did not want her to know anything about her past because she did not accept herself. There was too many different race groups in their family and she just couldn’t accept that. That is what made their family a “Mixed Blood Stew”. Even though her mother did not want to accept that, the main character seemed determined to figure out what race she was. She wanted to know who she was and where she came from.
Grace Reardon
10/2/2020 07:40:07 am
Mixed-Blood Stew is about a girl named Jewell Parker Rhodes. Jewell is very interested in knowing more about her family history. As she got older she became more curious, so she gathered information on her family and found out she is mixed. She is black, but has blood lines to white people. Her mother does not like to look at all the history stuff, she likes to keep history as history. The mother does not like the fact that they are mixed but still had a history of slaves in their family. Jewell is proud of her heritage and she sees that everyone is mixed, but handels it in different ways. Some people do not want to learn about their heritage, and some would actually care if they were mixed. The mother does have good reasons for not wanting to hear about it, because they were still being affected by racism. From the mom's point of view, how is it fair that she is part white, but the white people can still discriminate against her. Jewell had a very different view on this. Jewell was a very non-confirmative teen for her time. Jewell was proud about where she came from. She wanted others to learn about their heritage. She also wanted the racists to see that almost everyone is mixed, so why should racism be a thing. Jewell was a very rebellious teen and if she was in today's world, she would most definitely be leading the BLM movements. Racism was not going to stop Jewell, she was a powerhouse.
Tk Okla
10/2/2020 07:46:39 am
In the memoir, Jewel Parker Rose writes about her upbringing and her historic background. Jewel is a mixed female also known as mulatto. People who are mulatto are known to be descendants of white slave masters/ owners. She is married to a white man with two kids and is in the teaching field. She fears that one day someone will ask one of her kids why they are walking with a white person because one of her children is lighter than the other. In what she portrays I believe the archives are the belongings of her mothers that she doesn’t want her to touch or see. Usually archives are things that are kept hidden but are not permanently gone. In this case Jewel sees papers and things and her mother refuses to let her go through her things. Jewel accepts the fact that she is a mixed raced child and she embraces it and doesn’t try to be accepted into society but rather herself. Her mother on the other hand accepts it but wants to fit into the white part of her life. Jewel states “she was proud of her racial heritage, but her pride was bound up with the etiquette of a white world that was a figment of the fifties.” Jewel’s grandmother (who technically raised her) tells her to embrace her black skin. She says “the best kind- mixed blood stew”, meaning you are the best mixed race person.
Laura Schnitzer
10/2/2020 08:14:27 am
Mixed-Stew Blood by Jewell Parker Rhodes is about slavery. The story talks about the experiences of the author Jewell Parker Rhodes and her family. Jewell Parker Rhodes became more curious about her mixed skin as she got older. She found going through birth certificates, Social Security cards, paycheck stubs, blurred photographs of her mother and other strangers. All of these archives helped her to learn more about her mixed skin. Not only did the archives she found help but the Slave Auction did as well. The Slave Auction had various goods and animals to be auctioned including one healthy male, a woman (good cook), and a child. Jewell Parker Rhodes was proud to be who she is. It is inspiring that she wrote about what she and her family members lived through. Slaverly is not an easy topic to write about especially when you are personally affected by it. The author wants us to understand the history of slavery and what she went through.
Essiah Marcial
10/2/2020 08:28:40 am
Jewel Parker Rhodes writes about her background and how she feels about her ethnic background. The story talks about the experiences of the author Jewell Parker Rhodes and her family. Jewell Parker Rhodes became more curious about her mixed skin as she got older. She found going through birth certificates, Social Security cards, paycheck stubs, blurred photographs of her mother and other strangers. Usually, archives are things that are kept hidden but are not permanently gone. In this case, Jewel sees papers and things and her mother refuses to let her go through her things. Jewel accepts the fact that she is a mixed-race child and she embraces it and doesn’t try to be accepted into society but rather herself. Her mother on the other hand accepts it but wants to fit into the white part of her life. Jewel states “she was proud of her racial heritage, but her pride was bound up with the etiquette of a white world that was a figment of the fifties.” Jewel’s grandmother (who technically raised her) tells her to embrace her black skin. From the mom's point of view, how is it fair that she is part white, but the white people can still discriminate against her? Jewell had a very different view on this. Jewell was a very non-confirmative teen for her time. Jewell was proud of where she came from. She wanted others to learn about their heritage. She also wanted the racists to see that almost everyone is mixed, so why should racism be a thing. Jewell was a very rebellious teen and if she was in today's world, she would most definitely be leading the BLM movements. Racism was not going to stop Jewell, she was a powerhouse.
Kyle McCrea
10/5/2020 07:54:27 am
Mixed Blood Stew tells the story of Jewell Parker Rhodes and her ethnic background. The article depicts what her life was like as an author and life for her family. As she got older, Jewell got more invested and interested in her cultural heritage. Jewell then started to look through old archives of her family that her mother kept behind. She then realized had to accept the truth that she is a mixed race child. After this information was learned, she didn't worry about being accepted into society, she embraced her cultural and lived her life how she always lived her life. Jewel states “she was proud of her racial heritage, but her pride was bound up with the etiquette of a white world that was a figment of the fifties.” Jewell was so scared of coming out as a mixed child because of the white world that she lives in because of known racism towards blacks. Her grandmother wanted her to embrace her black roots while her mother anted her to embrace the white side of her skin. Jewell wants all people to realize that almost every single person is mixed in some way, shape, or form. She wants other to learn about their true heritage and embrace where they came from. If Jewell was living in todays society as a teen, she would be right in the middle of the BLM movements to help put a stop to systematic racism the US contains today. The racist behavior is toxic and degrading and needs to be stopped.
Leona Cotton
10/5/2020 10:48:59 am
“MIxed-Blood Stew” is a story about the author named Jewell Parker Rhodes who talks about her race and being mixed in the family. Throughout the story she is finding who she truly is and where she is from by her family members. Her grandmother is proud to share history to help find her granddaughter's self in knowing about her other half of herself. When she was little she started to find artifacts that came from her mother. Her mother abandoned her for 9 years, then when she was 9 years old her mother reconnected. Her main question all those years and even now, why would her mother leave her? When finding these treasures, she finds out that she is from a slave background. Knowing that is by her finding a picture of a slave auction and more of her mother documents. Furthermore, her grandmother tells her that her grandfather from her dad left the family because he was a wite man and left all his other children because they were mixed with black and started a whole new family with a white woman. Knowing that information its certain racist was more common back then and no sincerity. The author wants us as readers to understand that just because she found out she was mixed, does not change how she lives now. She wouldn't care if she was only black or just only white, she would still live her life as today. She has kids of her own, she is not naive about how america treats black or mixed people. She doesn't want whatever happens to her or her family affect her own children in the future.
kaia souza
10/28/2020 08:02:51 pm
mixed- blood stew is about the author jewell parker rhodes and she talks about her story with her ethnic background and being in a mixed family. throughout she is learning more about herself and her and her families history she learns the different history from each other different people and parts of her family. her grandmother is very willing to share the family history too help her. she was able to remember and think back on her past like how her mother had left her until she was nine and she learns about this even though not all of her qquestions are answered she is still able to learn more on herself. she also learns about her families past in slavery and how people in her families were slaves at on point and she learns about how her grandfather who was white left there family behind because they were all mixed. she want to learn and be able embrace both sides of her and help her grow with herself. jewell faces a struggle that many other mixed people and that she doesn’t feel as if she fits in on either side she wants to be herself and have society accept and embrace this. Leave a Reply. |
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