Whenever I read something, I always try to make connections between the reading and something that I’m more familiar with. This not only helps me view the subject in a different way or as part of a bigger picture, but it also makes the subject easier to understand. Now that we’ve more or less covered all of Blood Relations, I realized that the connections I made were extremely helpful. The comparison I make between the black and Chinese communities help me understand not only the reading, but also about my own community.
This week’s reading presented a variety of topics that I was able to draw connections with. The book mentioned and described how important benevolent societies, churches, and other community-based institutions were in building a strong community. I’m sure that this is also true for communities other than Harlem. I was able to see first hand how much influence these institutions can be to a community. I volunteered at a community center called Chinese American Planning Council (CPC) a few years ago. This was similar to the benevolent societies, but with a few differences. CPC was a non-profit organization, so there was no membership fee. CPC also doesn’t provide sick and death benefits since other government programs take care of that. Other than these main differences, CPC provided a variety of services for Chinese immigrants to help them adjust to life in New York City and provided job-training programs, just like the benevolent societies did. There were many community service projects in which volunteers work together to help the community. The benevolent societies and CPC are different, but its importance to the community it provides service to is the same.
Marcus Garvey and his concept of returning to Africa to create their own country was something that caught my interest. Garvey’s concept was not successful, but what would happen if it was? If millions of people of African descent from all over the world were to create a pan African country, how will the world look today? As we discussed in class, it probably wouldn’t end up very well since Africa is extremely diverse in its language, customs, and culture. It would be incredibly difficult for various tribes to cooperate. However, if Africa were able to unite, then it would be a formidable force. The shear size of Africa and the resources it contains cannot even be compared with that of any other country. This theoretical pan-African country would be a world super power and an essential component to the world economy. In fact, it already is. Many countries including the US and China have major trade relations with Africa. Other countries continually seek after the natural resources that Africa contains. Oil, lumber and precious metals ship out of Africa and manufactured products are shipped in.
