Text Review Assignment: Green Book


Harry Li (li.10203)

The movie Green Book told the story of a doctoral African American pianist Donald Shirley who hired an Italian American bouncer Tony “Lip” Vallelonga as his driver for his touring shows in the segregated South of America in 1962. The movie’s name was from The Negro Motorist Green Book which was a guidebook for African American travellers in the US to find places that would accommodate them during the mid-20th century. Green Book came out in 2018 and won Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award for Writing, and so on. Green Book mainly depicted how Tony Vallelonga turned from implicitly racist to anti-racist after spending two months with Dr. Shirley, and how Dr. Shirley’s courage and dignity shown during the trip to the South moved Tony and made them eventually close friends. The ending of the movie was warm and delightful to most of the audience as it showed how people from different socioeconomic levels and races could form strong bonds and understand each other.

At first, Tony would directly throw the cups at his home that were offered to two African American plumbers by his wife and refer black people with impolite words when he was with his family or friends. However, Tony was willing to work for Dr. Shirley as long as he was paid gratefully. This reflection in the movie vividly showed how racist people could appear to be nice to people from minor racial groups for their own interest due to human nature–need for money. To a broader context, this scene showed the existence of racism lying under “apparent kindness”. Therefore, it reminds of the audience how the society could be actually uglier than how wonderful and united it appears to be. The Black Lives Matter protests ripped off the “peaceful and equal” coating of the contemporary American society to reveal the darkness and inhumanity of some human hearts and demand for real changes inside people’s heads.

There are a lot of scenes in the movie that reflected the wide-spread of racism in the Mid-West and South of America in the 1960s. In Hanover, Indiana, the staff of the music hall that invited Dr. Shirley provided a low-quality piano with litters on it at first. Then in Raleigh, North Carolina, Dr. Shirley was not allowed to use the toilet in the mansion where he played. In Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Shirley was not allowed to dine in the restaurant where he was going to perform. Besides, along the way, there were unreasonable injustices towards Dr. Shirley from police officers. All these scenes could make the audience feel uncomfortable, sympathetic, and indignant for Dr. Shirley who could have stayed in New York and got all kinds of worship.

The movie was based on the true story of Donald Shirley and Frank Vallelonga. Even though there are criticisms of the movie saying that Green Book whitewashed white racists at that time and the real relationship between Frank Vallelonga and Dr. Shirley was not truly close like in the movie, it did provide an ideal vision where people from different social and racial backgrounds could be friends with each other as long as they try to communicate and understand each other. Since the movie was not produced by Don and Frank themselves, there is always deviation to some extent from the truth, but the value of the movie was how it could bring up people’s kindness and love within their heart to reduce racism in the world. At the end of the movie, when Tony’s relative referred Dr. Shirley as “tootsoon” at the Christmas Eve dinner, Tony rebutted seriously, “Don’t call him like that”. This scene manifested the appeal for standing up against injustices and racism regardless of the occasions and I believe this is how the movie encourages us to be like willingly.

Week 14: Contextual Research Presentation

Black Panther tells a story that there is a Shangri-La nation—Wakanda–in the middle of Africa which has control over the fictional metallic element “Vibranium”. Wakanda used advanced technology to disguise itself within the forest of Africa. The main character, acted by Chadwick Boseman, T’Challa is the Black Panther and he was going to inherit the Wakanda kingdom after his father’s death. However, the antagonist Killmonger challenged his throne. T’Challa wished to get rid of white supremacy through peaceful connections, making sure Wakanda is self-sustainable, and sharing their knowledge and technology. T’Challa’s vision is built on and ensures independence. But Killmonger wanted to use Wakanda’s technology to invade the outer world and be a colonizer. Of course, T’Challa won in the end. The ending criticizes how the colonism in the past were inhumane with the failure of Killmonger and how the world shall be working together, like WTO and United Nations, with the success of T’Challa.

Black Panther. (Credit: Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Everett)

Black Panther. (Credit: Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Everett)

The movie was a box office record breaker because of not only the popularity of Marvel Comics Universe but also the representation of the Black Panther and Wakanda. Wakanda is an imaginational country that represents how African countries could have been if there were no racism and colonism in Africa in the past centuries. However, we could also take Wakanda as a vision of how Africa could be achieving in the future.

In a 1990 interview with The Comics Journal, co-creator Jack Kirby described why he created the character: “I came up with the Black Panther because I realized I had no Blacks in my strip…I had a lot of Black readers. My first friend was…Black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else.”(Mattimore, n.p.)

This quote made me think of how being the first one to create something or speak something out could bring great impacts to the world. Black Panther is by far the most popular black superhero character in the world and I believe it unites the black community spiritually during this special period of time as Black Lives Matter protests are going on. Last but not least, I am looking forward to seeing more superhero characters from different races and backgrounds!

Work Cited:
Mattimore, Ryan. The Real History Behind the Black Panther. 15 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/news/the-real-history-behind-the-black-panther.

Diary of Systematic Injustices Showcase

Diary of Systematic Injustices Showcase

Harry Li (li.10203)

A systematic injustice I am clearly aware of is the difference in educational opportunity among kids from different provinces or ethnic groups in China. To begin with, China has 56 ethnic groups and the major group is Han which I am also a member of. Like America has SAT and ACT, China has China’s College Entrance Exam, which is also called GaoKao. It takes place on June 7th and 8th each year only once when multi-million kids fight for their future synchronously. However, unlike SAT, the papers’ difficulties differ from region to region. For example, my hometown Nanchang has our own paper and it is always harder than the national paper. There are also a few provinces that have their own paper with obvious higher difficulty. This means if kids from my province want to go to a university in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it would be a lot harder than kids from those cities since it is harder for out-of-province students to get very high scores when their papers are more difficult. Also, except Han, kids from all the other 55 ethnic groups get bonus points for around 2 to 3 percent of the total mark. There are arguments that minority groups do not get as much educational resources as Han but honestly it has been proven that their papers are way easier comparatively. Moreover, even though a Han kid gets the same mark as a kid from a minor group, the kid from a minor group has a better shot because all universities save a percentage of the total spots just for minority groups. Therefore, the impact of this phenomenon is that parents with connections or fortune would acquire or buy minor ethnic group identities illegally for their children.

 

Secondly, colleges have lower bars for local students so parents who could afford would buy properties in the big cities and move their residence registration to the big cities and get their children an edge. There is an ironic joke went viral in China years ago. It goes as follows: A kid in Beijing says: “Dad, I got a 530 [on the GaoKao], 53 points higher than the lowest qualifying score for top-tier universities!” “Great job, kid! Let us go to Shanghai for our vacation!” A kid in Shandong says: “Dad, I got a 530, 20 points lower than the lowest qualifying score for second-tier universities!” “You’re not so bright … Do not go [to college]. Get out of here and go become a migrant worker in Shanghai.” However, in Shanghai: “Dad, I got a 330. Send me abroad.” “Okay, son. Go get an MBA, then come back and help me. I got another group of migrant workers from Shandong this year.”(Fu, n.p.)

 

Even though I did not attend China’s College Entrance Exam, a lot of my peers who took it complained about it. All in all, Chinese educational system is for certain of systematic injustice to some extent and I believe it can only be righted if people all recognize this problem and appeal for equality as one. Plus, the regulations on those “buying edge” behaviors shall be harsher.

Work Cited:

Fu, Yiqin. China’s Unfair College Admissions System. 18 June 2013, www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/chinas-unfair-college-admissions-system/276995/.