I chose to watch the movie The Help for this assignment. This movie was set in the 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi where racism was still very prevalent and there was still segregation everywhere. The movie is about black housemaids named Minny and Abileen who worked for mean and hateful white families and were treated badly. They were paid less than $1 an hour to do basically everything around the house including raising the children and they were treated like property. A white educated young woman named Skeeter was the only one that treated them with respect and she began writing a book about their stories as housemaids. Many housemaids were hesitant to participate because they were scared that they would be arrested or beaten but when many of them did participate, the book was published and was a huge hit and changed the way many people saw the housemaids.
I chose this movie for this assignment because it shows the concept of the One and the Other very well. The white families were the ‘one’ and the black housemaids were the ‘other’. They were treated like property and they knew that there was nothing that they could do about it because their voice was never heard. In the movie, the worst housewife was named Hilly and she told all of the other wives that they should not let their housemaid use the same bathroom as them because she said they were disgusting and that they had diseases. They were dehumanized and not treated as people, only referred to as “the help”. There was a huge difference in the socioeconomic status of the white families and the black housemaids, the white families were all very rich but the black housemaids were poor and were paid below minimum wage. Hilly also accused Abileen of stealing at the end of the movie even though they both knew that that was not true but no one would believe Abileen over a rich white woman like Hilly because of the power that she held. This movie was a great example of this concept because it really showed how bad that these housemaids were treated and how they did not even try to say something because they knew that their voice would not be heard until a woman like Skeeter went against the status quo to tell their side of the story.
Mary Benedetto: Hello. Welcome to Yo, is this racist podcast. My name’s Mary.
Kaitlyn Robles: My name is Kaitlyn.
Olivia Mack: My name is Olivia Mack.
Mary Benedetto: And today we’re going to be covering a lot of interesting topics. We’re going to talk about Breonna Taylor um, and, maltreatment by police; we’re also going to talk about Covid, the public health care crisis surrounding that, as well as the lack of healthcare access to a lot of individuals in our country, um, and a few other interesting stories for you guys.
Olivia Mack: Alright, the first topic we’re going to talk about is Breonna Taylor. In March of this year in Louisville, Kentucky police were serving a no knock warrant on Breonna Taylor’s ex boyfriend who was not even at the residence at the time Breonna Taylor’s current boyfriend, whose name is Kenneth Walker was at the residence with Breonna and claim the police did not announce themselves and busted through the door. So Kenneth thinking that it was an intruder grabbed his registered and legal gun to shoot at Whoever he thought was intruding in the home and the police shot back
Olivia Mack: Neither Breonna, or Kenneth have any criminal history and no drugs are found in the home, Kenneth called the police after shooting. After the shooting was over, because he still had not known that the police had actually been the one shooting back Breonna was killed in this Crossfire and no one no police tried to help Breonna after the shooting was over, so
Olivia Mack: They did arrest Kenneth and later claim and he later claimed that one of the cops told him that everything was a misunderstanding. And body cam footage from the police on the scene actually shows them casing the apartment with Breonna still on the ground and they had still not helped her. So it is unclear if Breonna would still be alive today if they had helped her in a reasonable amount of time um the results of this incident actually are no Knock Warrants were banned in May and June one officer was fired, In late September one officer is now facing charges for wanton endangerment, which is for the shots that were accidentally fired into a neighboring apartment. So basically, he’s only getting charged for the shots that he missed rather than the ones that actually killed Breonna Taylor and the concept that I would like to
Olivia Mack: Relate to this is the March BY JOHN LEWIS because of the violence from police towards African Americans and also how the justice system failed Breonna Taylor and also the Freedom Riders
Mary Benedetto: Yeah, I think it’s interesting that you bring up Breonna Taylor. I also, uh, wrote about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, obviously two individuals, uhm, dealt with very poorly by our police this year. Uhm, we see a lot of injustice with our police forces, even today. I took a summer class this past summer, a history class, which was the history of the criminal justice system in our country and we watched this documentary where it was following a gang unit in Newark, New Jersey, and they really had a way of acting, uhm, on hunches rather than actual proof or an indication that, uhm, someone was committing a crime. It was more so like, one instance, for example, they saw this gang unit, they’re driving around they see this guy riding his bike and as they walk by him, or as they drive by him, they see him grab his waistband, so they thought that was a reason for a search and he clutched his waistband, they thought because he had a weapon on him. Turns out he had just purchased two CDs from a store right down the road, and he was holding them in his waistband because he didn’t have any pockets. And we see these kinds of things that it’s it’s hard because our police force can’t act on on these hunches, it has to be for a reason and I get, you know, obviously being working with criminals you you have a different perception than we civilians do, but it’s just it can’t it can’t be that kind of way, it’s, I mean, like I said, these are occurring almost daily and, uhm, there’s a lot of injustice surrounding that.
Olivia Mack: Another topic is that racism has actually been declared a public health crisis in Columbus, as of this year because of the higher rate that African Americans are dying in hospitals rather than whites. It’s actually 2.4 times more. African Americans suffer are suffering systemic racism and socio-economic inequalities that are causing them to experience health care disparities. And this topic is important to me because I plan to go into healthcare field when I’m older. And I think it’s very important that any health care workers have compassion for everyone and are willing to help everyone in the same way. And it’s really disappointing that this is an issue in hospitals, because everyone deserves the same health care but
Mary Benedetto: I also agree with that in the sense that everyone deserves the same access to health care. Uhm, I’ve noticed too that in our country, specifically, we do not utilize universal health coverage like co- or, uh, countries like Germany and Australia, they do. Uhm, they- their health outcomes are remarkable compared to the US, but we just don’t have this access for everyone. Uhm, something as simple as insurance, obviously not everyone has, without having insurance, you don’t have as much breathing room, so to speak, when it comes to your options for seeking healthcare. Uhm, it’s more so you have to pay out-of-pocket or, uh, see a safety net provider or even go to the ER for something as simple as the flu, because you don’t have access to doctors, maybe because you live in a rural area where there’s a shortage of providers. Uhm, it could also be just because you don’t have the ability to pay the amount for their services so you seek out, like I said, these safety net providers. Uhm, something as simple too, as you know, having- I work at an eye doctor and something as simple as having, you know, an eye exam is, you know, that might be a $20 copayment for people who have insurance and typically, you have insurance through your work, but for those who don’t they’re paying $149 for an exam because they don’t have this insurance. So it’s like you already are paying too much money, or the full amount, I should say. You also may not have the access because of the shortage in rural areas and we also just don’t have this this universal coverage. So not everyone is insured to have it provided for everyone.
Olivia Mack: Yeah, I think those are really good points.
Kaitlyn Robles: I think another way that people don’t realize is the Issues that the healthcare providers themselves can face in the sense of those who come from other countries to America. For example, there was a family in my community, and they came from India and they’re both doctors and the husband and the wife, and they had to come to America and open a business that was going to be their new job, instead of being doctors like they were in India because of all of the hoops that they would have to jump through to be able to become doctors and as you get to make it through all of those, then they really are considered lucky because they would have to go through a bunch of residencies and those are things that you have to apply for. So when you’re In the process of that they have the chance of not even getting selected for those
Kaitlyn Robles: And then secondly, And other minorities in America face a lot of othering and subaltern-ism here because they’re different from other people, and people look at them that way. When really, we’re all just humans and we don’t need to be looking at each other that way.
Mary Benedetto: Yeah.
Kaitlyn Robles: And then secondly, racism and the military has been a very historic topic. In the military, 43% of the United States military is made up of minorities. And that’s seems like something that’s really awesome because we can all come together for the purpose of protection. But what is sad about that is that such with such a large minority presence their presence in the higher ranks is a much lower percent, one article I found claims that only 4.8% of their force our officers are African American
Mary Benedetto: That’s very impressive.
Kaitlyn Robles: Also as an American citizen, this is upsetting to know that discrimination still occurs in the military. As those people are people that we admire and no matter their race because of the sacrifices they make to serve our country. And this is a systemic injustice, because they’re using one’s racial and ethnic background against them and keeping them back from succeeding positions within the military.
Olivia Mack: Now, I think that’s really upsetting considering the fact that they’re putting their lives on the line to protect us and still getting discriminated against.
Mary Benedetto: I agree. Is there anything that you guys felt that we already discussed that you want to touch on even more? Like Breonna Taylor has had a lot of conversation surrounding her, of course Covid is a ton of conversation regarding, but is there anything that you felt interesting or anything that seems uncertain, uhm that you want to discuss more? Something that you feel uneasy about? Really just any commentary on anything that we just talked about.
Kaitlyn Robles: I think we could discuss the way it’s going forward in any of these issues.
Mary Benedetto: Like the way they’re going forward?
Kaitlyn Robles: Yeah, like slowly or how they can get better.
Mary Benedetto: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, where we go from here.
Kaitlyn Robles: Right.
Olivia Mack: I think that healthcare workers should definitely be screened to make sure that they’re not you know discriminating towards patients, I think.
Mary Benedetto: For sure. For sure.
Olivia Mack: Yeah, something that is watched. And I mean, yeah.
Kaitlyn Robles: I think that there needs to be more accountability hold for those things.
Mary Benedetto: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Olivia Mack: Yeah, exactly.
Kaitlyn Robles: I don’t understand why they can just do that and have seemingly no consequences.
Mary Benedetto: Well, I think, as you said screening for healthcare workers, I think there’s obviously a lot of work that needs to be done in our police like more training, even in not so- not necessarily how to shoot a gun, but when to shoot it and when, you know, when to actually utilize your skills, not just you know how to do it and finding an instance when it’s, there’s just a lot more high-tech training that needs to go on.
Kaitlyn Robles: Yeah, I think all around like a lot of these issues. They all result from something like that and you know, those are all things that can be fixed, but we as a nation to work together and focus on ending the tolerance of racism.
Mary Benedetto: Oh, absolutely. Completely agree.
Olivia Mack: Exactly.
Kaitlyn Robles: Because I think that things only happen when you tolerate it. It’s just gone on.
Mary Benedetto: Kaitlyn, preach! Yes. Yes.
Olivia Mack: All right, I think that concludes our podcast. Thank you guys for your input.
This week we will be reading Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag. In this book Sontag talks about war through the perspective of photography and how governments use this journalism to portray war to the viewers. She talks about photo-journalism from a few wars and also images from Operation Iraqi Freedom. To understand the photos that she talks about in this book, specifically Operation Iraqi Freedom, it would be helpful to look at the history and establishment of Iraq.
After World War One, Britain decided to occupy some parts of the middle east to protect strategic interests and communications. They imposed on Iraq and changed much of the government to model that of India. At the San Remo Conference in 1920, the League of Nations had given Britain mandatory powers over Iraq. This led to revolt from the citizens of Iraq. The revolt resulted in a treaty between Britain and Iraq to neutralize Iraqi opposition but they still remained under indirect rule of Britain and also economic dependence on them. The British chose Faysal to become King of Iraq from 1921 to 1933 whose appointment was welcomed by a majority of Iraqis. However, Faysal’s kingdom lacked the most basic governmental infrastructures such as a constitution. Iraqi and Arab nationalists still desired full independence but Britain still attempted to keep power over Iraq. He worked very hard to gain full independence for Iraq and even rejected the Anglo-British agreement that would have legitimized Britain’s hold over Iraq. A constitutional cabinet and assembly were established in 1922. Iraqi eventually gained independence and membership into the League of Nations in 1932 and Faysal died the following year.
Saddam Hussein governed from 1968 to 2003. Under Saddam Hussein, there was the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) which was very costly and devastated the economy. Saddam Hussein was not a popular dictator and was hated by many of the Iraqi citizens. In an interview with Susan Sontag she talks about the importance of knowing the history of the country in question because she claims that if we are aware of the history, then it will allow us to think differently. She also stresses the importance of thinking about how other people feel and uses the example of a citizen in Iraq that hated Saddam Hussein and to they to see from their point of view.
Work Cited
Marr, Pheobe, and Ibrahim Al-Marashi. The Modern History of Iraq, Google Books, 2017, books.google.com/books?id=pb5aDwAAQBAJ%2Cestablishment+of+iraq. Accessed November 6, 2020.
One of the largest news stories going through the media right now is about the wrongful death of Breonna Taylor. In March of this year police in Louisville, Kentucky were serving a no-knock warrant on Breonna Taylor’s ex boyfriend who was not even at that residence. Police did not announce themselves when they busted through the door so Breonna’s boyfriend used his registered and legal gun to protect themselves because he did not know it was the police. Neither Breonna or her boyfriend have any criminal history and no drugs were found. Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in this raid by the police. After the shooting, Breonna’s boyfriend called the police because he claims that at that point, he still did not know that it was the police that were shooting since no one came to try to help Breonna. They arrested her boyfriend and and her boyfriend recalls one of the officers later telling him that it was a misunderstanding (CBS This Morning). In the body cam footage
after the shooting, police are shown casing the apartment with Breonna still laying on the ground. Breonna could possibly be alive today if police would have gotten her help when they should have. Breonna Taylor was an EMT, devoting herself to saving others and she absolutely did not deserve to be killed. Since this, no-knock warrants have been banned in late May but it took until June for one of the officers to be fired. In late September only one officer has had files charged against him and the other two officers involved do not
have any. The officer that was charged was only charged with wanton endangerment which is for the shots that were fired that went into a neighboring apartment (What We Know About Breonna Taylor’s Case and Death”). Essentially, after about 6 months, very little has been done to give Breonna Taylor any Justice. The only officer that had charges pressed against him was only charged for the shots that he missed, not the ones that killed Breonna Taylor. The justice system has failed Breonna Taylor and her family by not providing any real justice for her death. The police need to be held accountable. In any other profession such as one in the medical field, if you mess up and kill someone you will be punished, but in this case, police wrongfully killed an innocent woman and they have not had to face hardly any punishment. This can be related to the The March by John Lewis because of the violence that African Americans faced from police during the Civil Rights Movement and how the justice system failed them just as it did to Breonna Taylor. In stories such as this one about Breonna Taylor, it is evident that there is still change to be made and racism still exists in the justice system.
have any. The officer that was charged was only charged with wanton endangerment which is for the shots that were fired that went into a neighboring apartment (What We Know About Breonna Taylor’s Case and Death”). Essentially, after about 6 months, very little has been done to give Breonna Taylor any Justice. The only officer that had charges pressed against him was only charged for the shots that he missed, not the ones that killed Breonna Taylor. The justice system has failed Breonna Taylor and her family by not providing any real justice for her death. The police need to be held accountable. In any other profession such as one in the medical field, if you mess up and kill someone you will be punished, but in this case, police wrongfully killed an innocent woman and they have not had to face hardly any punishment. This can be related to the The March by John Lewis because of the violence that African Americans faced from police during the Civil Rights Movement and how the justice system failed them just as it did to Breonna Taylor. In stories such as this one about Breonna Taylor, it is evident that there is still change to be made and racism still exists in the justice system.