Political aspects of the site

When I was 5,
my mother said to me,
"You don't have to say the Pledge. It isn't meant for you."
That was in 1959 on my first day of school.
She added if the teacher tried to make me say it, then have her talk to my mother.
I didn't know what the pledge was, or why it wasn't meant for me, but I understood that my mother, who usually insisted on good behavior, was clearly giving me permission to disobey.

from With Liberty and Justice for All, first page

Karasic's initial dilemma, whether or not to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States, frames the rest of her story. The contradictions between being part of an American military family ("My father was a soldier. My mother was the soldier's wife. Soldiers exist to serve the indivisible dream") and being Black ("I didn't understand that my mother was implying that since we are Black, liberty and justice was not intended for us"). This is not the only dichotomy, however; Carmin also faces the question of being female vs. male, being foriegn vs. American, being out of place vs. fitting in.

The explicit political ideas in the story are often conveyed throught the "American Dream" sequence of pictures, which, while not directly connected to Karasic's life as her family photos are, do provide the framing for her intellectual life. These pictures often reflect the main political events of the 1950s and '60s: Martin Luther King, the riots in Watts, and so on. Conspicuously left out are images of Vietnam and war protests; possibly this relates to her father being sent to Vietnam, a mention of which is made but not followed up on.

The political questions of the site are often brought up by the ironic juxtoposition of two pictures. For instance, a picture in the American Dream sequence captioned "Civil Disobedience: The Selma to Montgomery, AL March,"

is juxtoposed next to a picture in the "My life" sequence that is a picture of her proud father in his uniform.

from With Liberty and Justice for All

These two images, representing two different worlds, are the embodiment of the contradictions in Karasic's life. Juxtoposed with this is the text:
"I didn't understand that my mother was implying that since we are Black, liberty and justice was not intended for us."

Later in her life Karasic takes on another set of political questions, unrelated to the civil rights movement, as she states that in high school she "identified with the hippies" and takes on a persona that is far from her parent's politics. Although concious of other currents in American politics -- she writes, "Black militants inspired me, but they scared me. I identified with the hippies" -- she stays with the peace and love current, ending the site on this note: "In 1969, we still dreamed of utopias and world peace." To go along with this there are pictures of some of the cultural iconography of the period, such as a picture of Janis Joplin singing.

Karasic's site brings up the questions, how much does the political influence the personal? How large a part of our individual experience are current events, and how does one resolve living one's life between one's personal history and public awareness? Finally, the site asks the viewer to resolve the question that Karasic herself explicitly states in her Artist's Statement,

"Was the pledge meant for this little black girl growing up in the US in the 1960s or not?"