图书作者与内容简介

The book "Memory and Monument Wars in American Cities" is written by Marouf A. Haisan and Nicholas S. Paliewicz, who are both experts in the department of communication. This book ***yzes what was learned from the agentic cityscapes. How the cities have carried its past and become what they are nowadays. In the case of this book: New York, Charlottesville, and Montgomery.

我的观点

The book surrounds the past and history of New York, Charlottesville, and Montgomery. First, the 911 incident in New York. The author illustrated how the incident traumatized the city, what were the reactions, and the great comeback after this horrific event. Then, the controversy in Charlottesville. Based on the case of whether the statues of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson should be removed or not, the book deeply discusses the tensions caused by their slavery past. Furthermore, the book also talks about Montgomery being one of the main American slave trading centers, and how they manage to 「set things straights」 by raising consciousness about the dark history of lyching Jim Crow, etc. Many important topics are shown in this book. I believe that I’ve learned a lot from these agentic cities.

911 is one of the most well known terrorist attacks in recent history. The attack not only physically destroyed the iconic World Trade Center, but also created lots of psychological concerns afterwards. From what I have learned in the past and from this book, I pointed out two of some major problems, which is racism and police brutality.

We all know that 911 was caused by Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization, and I believe that’s where the stereotypes started. People started to put labels on Arabs and Muslims. This made me look back in history when World War II occurred. At that time, Japanese-Americans were harshly discriminated against. In both of the examples, people were judged based on their race and how they look. I think it’s extremely inappropriate. The US is a country that’s composed of immigrants from all over the world. I’ve been to Macomb, Michigan as a foreign exchange student. Macomb has a decent amount of Arabic population, but from my perspective, they are just 「Americans」. I believe that the racism problems in the US have definitely changed for the better over the years. 

Another controversy that is mentioned in this chapter is about police brutality. After 911, people lived in fear of other terrorist attacks or even domestic violence. That’s where the police came in. They seemed to provide a sense of safety, but there were much more below the surface. A quote from the book, 「911 gave New York City the excuse that it needed to rationalize the constant surveillance, lockdown, and control of those who might, in even tertiary ways be associated with the city’s foes.」 (p46-47)shows how police were able to utilize extreme methods to achieve what they thought was justice and to secure citizens safety. However, I believe that what they did crossed the line and people shouldn’t have to compromise their basic rights to these fears that likely wouldn’t happen. There were also more incidents to support the idea of the militarization of the police and the city. In my opinion, though public security is important, when it violates people’s rights it jeopardizes people’s safety as well.  

Yet, after all the mess this city went through, it still stands as one of the most notable cities in the world. I am impressed by its remarkable recovery. Another quote from this chapter, 「While our city may never be the same, we will be better and stronger as a result of all we have experienced.」 I find this quote quite inspiring. In our lives, there are certainly many obstacles on the way. But every challenge we face makes us stronger and if we get into a similar situation in the future we will know what to do. From my experience going to the 911 memorial, it is a serious place and we mourned for the ones that passed away. This chapter of the book gives me a deeper understanding of the event of 911 and the changes afterwards. I give my respect to New York, everything it’s been through, and the endeavor that leads to a great comeback.

The second city that’s indicated in the book is Charlottesville, Virginia. The situation can be traced back to the famous American Civil War. Although slavery was abolished after passing the 13th amendment, racism problems of African American continue to exist. During Reconstruction, African American finally gained freedom, but that didn’t make lives better. When I was an exchange student in the US, I learned quite a few things about what happened during the time of Reconstruction in their history class. Former slaves couldn’t find decent jobs. Lots of them became sharecroppers and were taken advantage of by their former owners. Most of them faced Jim Crow, being discriminated against and unfairly treated. These kinds of problems build up the dark history of Charlottesville.

The book focuses on an event in Charlottesville. White supremacists protested against removing the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. They were Confederate Generals during the Civil War. The controversy of whether to remove the statue eventually led to violent, physical conflicts between both sides, causing one dead and multiple injured. In my perspective, the statues should be taken down. For those African American with ancestors or family being enslaved in the past, these statues surely draw back terrible memories, and shouldn’t continue traumatizing them. However, I believe that removing statues is definitely not the only thing that needs to be done. Quoting from this chapter, 「Removing statues alone won’t remove the lasting legacy of white supremacy.」(p89) To be for the better and move on from the past, people’s spirits have to be improved essentially. 

One key point I can think of to move closer to peace is embracing diversity. The United States is a country full of different races. I understand that in human nature we tend to get close with people that are more similar to ourselves. But in my opinion, we can also learn a lot from different people. Different people can provide different points of views. We can learn from their culture, habits, etc as well. This chapter made me think back to what the Civil War did to Americans, and what they could do to honor the free country they have now.

The final agentic city in this book is Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery was a center of slavery trading in the US in the past. This again brings up the discrimination against African American. This chapter elaborated more on the ways that they were mistreated. For instance, slavery, lynching, and mass incarceration. Even if we take samples from more recent evidence, African American are still facing disadvantages. Quotes from this chapter, 「 A routine practice that has allowed judge’s implicit biases against persons of color to flourish」 (p118) and 「Black families were deprived of similar financial opportunities due to explicit and implicit racial biases that left Alabama with immobilized and impoverished residents.」 (p105) are the proofs that African Americans were and are still getting treated differently judicially and economically due to their race.

One of the aspects of this topic that intrigue me the most is the Civil Right movements. There are many extraordinary people during that time period who dedicated themselves to improve African Americans’ rights. My favorites are the ones that are mentioned in this chapter: Rosa Park and Dr. Martin Luther King. They utilized non-violent methods such as boycotting and protesting to gain what they deserved. The efforts they gave helped Americans to get closer to racial equality. 

Another topic this chapter brings up is building memorials and museums for the dark history. Bryan Stevenson told reporters 「 we don’t have many places in America where we have urged people to look at the history of racial inequality, to look at the history of slavery of lynching, of segregation.」 (p110) This makes me think that aren’t those museums kind of representing the same things that the statues in Charlottesville do? They remind African Americans of the horrific things that happened to them. The government may have thought they could show their sympathy by doing so, but I strongly disagree. I believe they are more likely to cause the same problems as the Confederate statues or even worse. In my opinion, Montgomery still has a long way to achieve true racial equality.

Racism problems are discussed the most in this book. Between different cities and considering their unique paths, there are many obstacles to be overcome. In the final ***ysis, the cities have all experienced some traumatic history or incidents. In order to find peace or conquer the fear of each other, staying open-minded is crucial. The book amazingly conveys how history is engraved in American cities and how the effects have lasted till today. I learned a lot about the three cities in this book, their resilience, and people putting efforts to make things go for the better.