Author: billups.30

Text Review – Kennedy Billups

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The Netflix original movie “Nappily Ever After”, which is based on Trisha R. Thomas’s book, was released in September of 2018 causing a huge wave of discourse surrounding intersectionality and blackness because of how authentic the movie portrayed a black woman’s experience. Groundbreaking actress Sanaa Lathan, who plays main character Violet Jones, has also starred in a number of black cult classics such as Love & Basketball and Brown Sugar. In this case, she stayed true to the character by going on her own personal journey that was connected to that of Violet’s.

Nappily Ever After is a story about black love and black joy that subsequently addresses underlying issues of identity in relation to race and gender, while simultaneously exploring their interconnectivity through an intersectional lens. Lathan who plays Violet, a business professional who works at a large advertising firm has an identity crisis related to her blackness, specifically her “black” hair. Subsequently, she meets a man who leads her in reexamining what defines her as a black woman, how she sees herself, and how she wants the world to view her. Thus, Violet shaves her head and is met with the realities of hegemonic beauty standards that ascribe blackness as being subordinate to the Eurocentric beauty of whiteness and white women. This is an example of how black women’s identities are rendered invisible by racialized othering.

Throughout the movie gender dynamics are examined by depicting Violet’s experience as a black woman in a predominantly white and male space, at a firm who has afforded her little to no upward mobility because of aspects of her identity, especially race and gender. While tokenism is the first thing that may come to mind, this also highlighted systemic injustices black women experience in the workplace because of racialization, gendering, and the interconnectivity of the two in spaces that reinforce existing patriarchal power structures within institutions.

Nonetheless, it is important to understand that the intersection of identities create a multifaceted experience that often employs a multitude of oppressions that impede upon one’s ability to navigate spaces, and forces the “other” to negotiate their existence. This is essential when addressing systemic injustices, and must be part of the solution.

Context Research Project Week 10 – Kennedy Billups

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This weeks reading is the Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri whose characters are Indian immigrants that migrated to America and return to their homeland India. To provide some historical context, the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan and the Indian diaspora are two important concepts that I will address. On August 15, 1947, the division of British India into two sperate countries (India and Pakistan) was known as the Partition of India, solidifying the independence from British colonial rule. This partition was solidified by the Indian Independence Act of 1947 which legally recognized India and Pakistan as two self-governing countries. However, while this was a moment of great triumph, it was also stricken with overwhelming violence and death as around two-million people lost their lives in the conflict that followed the Partition.

The division of the Indian subcontinent to India and Pakistan was also heavily influence by religion, as areas that were predominantly Muslim were assigned to Pakistan and areas that were majority Hindu to India. As a result, millions of Hindus and Muslims were displaced as disputes over territory followed soon after the newfound independence. The India diaspora— the dispersion of any people from their homeland—was the migration and displacement of between ten to two million people along religious lines. After changes in U.S. immigration policies, Indian settlement in the U.S. saw a dramatic increase in the mid-1960s, an immigration story similar to that of the Das Family who is introduced to us in the short stories.

Author Jhumpa Lahiri also has a similar story as her own parents immigrated from Calcutta, India to the United Kingdom where she was born. Lahiri uses her personal background as an Indian American to create characters that are authentic to a multi-cultural experience, while also reflecting on her own experiences as well as her parents. This emphasizes the volume at which cultural context can shift ones understanding of an authors’ writing.

Citations:

Perkin, R. C. (2017, June 12). 1947 Partition of India & Pakistan. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/about/1947-partition-of-india-pakistan

https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/about/1947-partition-of-india-pakistan

Shea, Taylor (2008) “Interpreter of Maladies: A Rhetorical Practice Transmitting Cultural Knowledge,” Reason and Respect: Vol. 4: Iss. 1,                Article 2

https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=rr

 

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase – Kennedy Billups

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Why Reproductive Healthcare is More Than Just Abortion and How the Narrative is Changing

Image by: Sophie Ota/Planned Parenthood Action Fund. July 2017

My advocacy and allyship for LGBTQ rights started when my aunt revealed she identified as lesbian, also explaining what it meant to her and what it would mean for me as well. Fast forward to this year, my aunt and her wife decided they wanted to have a child and began looking into the process for IUI (Intrauterine Insemination), which is a very common pathway to parenthood for LGBTQ couples. As a I am a source of support for them, I was asked assist in the process by researching the pros and cons, and any other stipulations involved in the process. I soon realized they would have a difficult journey. The company culture surrounding same-sex couples health insurance highlighted the continued Othering of LQBTQ identities, as noted by The New York Times who did a story on the developing policies of employers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/health/09patient.html

The concept of the Other is ever-present in issues surrounding LGBTQ rights as advocacy groups and citizens engaged with the judicial to implement radical social change that is unprecedented. Similarly, in class discussions about Aijaz Ahmad’s work deconstructing and analyzing the theory of the Self and the Other helps us to understand the epistemic paradigms that influence how our society might respond to said social changes, such as laws that ensure the same policies exist for partners in same-sex marriages as they do for heterosexual partners in marriages.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/09/07/the-health-insurance-surprise-facing-some-same-sex-couples/#17e88e8d5930

While we have celebrated major achievements for the LGBTQ community in recent years, still there remains systemic injustices that harm members of that community. My aunt’s health insurance did not cover IUI, only IVF (In vitro fertilization) which is an option that addresses infertility or prevention of genetic abnormalities. This is a civil rights issue based on the unequal access to reproductive healthcare for Gay and Lesbian individuals seeking alternative pathways to parenthood, and the 14th Amendment that states procreation is a fundamental right. Additionally, the issue of infertility may need to be redefined as state mandates should cover all people who experience infertility—not just heterosexual individuals. This further emphasizes heteronormative ideology embedded in our social scripts and institutions allowing the rights of minority communities to be infringed upon. Starting the conversation is just the first step in addressing systemic injustice, next comes the long journey to right the wrongs…