Author: Lexi Edwards

Text Review- The Blind Side

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       When I first read the prompt of the text review assignment, the first movie that came to my mind was The Blind Side. If you haven’t seen The Blind Side, this iconic movie that’s based on a true story, clearly shows the the themes of being an ‘other’ and racism. Quickly, The Blind Side revolves around Micheal Oher. Micheal is black, homeless, comes from a low income area with parents that aren’t able to provide for him. Micheal is taken in by a Caucasian family that provides him with his needs and desires.
       First, I’ll be discussing how the concept of “other” is portrayed in the film. Micheal, who is loving and kind, stands out amongst his white classmates because of his large stature and difference in skin color. He is very uneducated and most of his teachers gave up on him because of his lack of education growing up. To Micheal’s advantage, his appearance captivates football coaches and he becomes a star at the game. When I think deeper, I question if the football coaches only liked Micheal becuase of they knew he’d be great at the game and not because of who he really was as a person. Imagine the uncomfort and struggles to find a sense of belonging that Micheal endures going from one extreme environment to the next.
        This story also takes place in the south which has an undesirable past for the African American community. With this being said, Micheal also experiences racism. While attending the University of Mississippi, he’s arrested by the police with no valid explanation which is an issue that still happens today in the African American community and often results in death. He even gets called racial slurs by opponents causing frustration. I’ve noticed that society as a whole struggles viewing someone internally instead of judging their external appearance.
    When I think back to the pieces that we’ve read, I think about Ortiz Cofer and how she can relate to Micheal. She also experienced the struggles of switching cultures and being a minority. She was tall, had dark hair, and was leaner therefore she stood out and became viewed as a target. Cofer was even viewed differently in Puerto Rico than she was in the United States causing confusion and uncertainty. The concept of the being the ‘other’ and racism have been stressed in this course and we still see these sensitive concepts portrayed in all aspects of our society today.
Sources:  The Blind Side.

The Blind Side: A Story of Adoption and All Its Beauty, Adoption Choices of Arizona , 13 Dec. 2019, www.adoptionchoicesofarizona.org/blog/2019/12/the-blind-side-a-story-of-adoption-and-all-its-beauty/.

Context Research presentation- Lexi Edwards week 13

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       Antigua and Barbuda are English speaking island sovereign states located in the West Indies. Antigua and Barbuda have been independent of the United Kingdom since the early 80’s and most of the money invested is from tourism alone. As Kincaid explains, Antigua specifically, is known for corruption cases in the past and currently. The definition of corruption according to Merriam-Webster dictionary is “Dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people”. When the people with the most authority aren’t leading correctly in any country or territory, the public has no voice or impact to create change.
        John Ashe, Antigua’s UN diplomat and a man that held other admirable accolades, was caught on charges of corruption in the United States in 2015. He was claimed to have received bribes in over 1 million US dollars during his duration as diplomat. He used the money to pocket himself and purchase luxury items. The effects of corruption cases in Antigua include Anti-corruption Framework in the United Nations to prevent further corruption. Another case includes the notorious R. Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme which was not thoroughly investigated and participants are not being prosecuted. To elaborate, the Stanford Ponzi scheme was used as a base of operation to funnel money in and out of banks and being used for illegal purposes.
        How does extreme corruption like these cases effect Antigua and Barbuda’s future? Corruption serves many problems within communities such as economic loss, poverty and inequality, public and private sector dysfunction, organized crime and terriorism , etc. When a community is corrupt the public lacks constitutional and human rights because the government cannot be depended on and the poor becomes vulnerable. Overall, the corruption scandals revolving around Antigua and Barbuda and the United Nations halt all around growth and create an uneven distribution of wealth within the community.
Sources:
      Bak, Mathias. “Overview of Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.” U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, 2019, www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-and-anti-corruption-in-antigua-and-barbuda-barbados-dominica-guyana-jamaica-st-lucia-and-trinidad-and-tobago.

      Clarke, Stephen. “Antigua and Barbuda: History of Corruption and the Stanford Case.” Antigua and Barbuda: History of Corruption and the Stanford Case | Law Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/law/help/ag-corruption/stanford.php.

“Corruption.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corruption. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020

Katharina.kiener-Manu. Anti-Corruption Module 1 Key Issues: Effects of Corruption, Sept. 2019, www.unodc.org/e4j/en/anti-corruption/module-1/key-issues/effects-of-corruption.html.

Diary of systemic injustice

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Looking through my systemic injustice entries, I’ve settled on a topic that personally connects with me. Now that I’m nineteen and can vote, I’m more mature and aware of past and present racism and discrimination more than ever before.  Richmond Virginia (my city) made national headlines in the past four months. There has been a lot of noise around the confederate statues that stand tall in the city streets. After the death of George Floyd, the city of Richmond demanded the confederate soldier statues to be removed immediately from Monument Avenue. My question was “Why celebrate and honor these soldiers if they wanted to protect slavery?”. The statues were invaded with paint, profanity, trash, graffiti, and more in hopes of destroying the statues. A statue was even dumped in a river nearby by angry civilians. Now that I’ve grown older, it’s painful to realize that these statues have been up for over 100 years because of it’s symbolism. After previous research, Virginia had more than 220 memorials to the confederacy. The Governor, Ralph Northam, stated “These monuments tell a particular version of history that doesn’t include everyone. In Virginia, that version of history has been given prominence and authority for far too long”. I couldn’t agree more. After days of angry mobs overruling the ones who were resistant, some of the statues were removed. I hope that as a state and nation we can bring awareness to the issue and racism as a whole. By fighting for what’s right shouldn’t start a problem, it should unravel the problem that’s been suppressed for years. There can be no peace without justice and we need to come together as a city and country. The removal of the confederate soldiers is a stepping stone to equality in the future. This connects back to the concept of being the “other”. Being a minority myself, I felt that it was only right to eliminate the face of people that purposefully left out the “other” groups in past decades. Not to mention, these statues were located on public property that uses tax payers dollars to maintain them. Praising these confederate soldiers not only is a reminder of a brutal part of our history, but it slows down the progression of our country.

Here’s a picture that I captured back in June of 2020:

 

June 2020

 

Works cited and Referenced article:

-Ortiz, Aimee. “Richmond Removes Confederate Statues From Monument Avenue.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/us/stonewall-jackson-statue-richmond.html