Author: pesce.13

Emily Pesce Text Review– Green Book

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Green Book is a film that came out in 2018, directed by Peter Farrelly, starring Mahersala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. The movie is based on the true story of Dr. Don Shirley, a high-class, black classical pianist (played by Ali), and his concert tour through the deep south in 1962. Mortensen plays Tony Lip, a low-class Italian-American that is recruited by Dr. Shirley to be his driver and protector for the eight-week tour. The movie follows their experiences during the tour as well as their evolving relationship throughout the journey.
From the start of the movie, the two men do not get along because of their clashing races, classes, and attitudes towards life. Dr. Shirley has little to no respect for Tony’s rash and uneducated persona while Tony possesses an abundance of distaste for Dr. Shirley’s pretentious and annoyingly uptight views. What is most interesting at the start of the film is how reversed this story begins. It is clear to the audience that this situation is the exception to the norm because in the 1960s we would expect Tony, the white male, to be a higher classed citizen than that of Dr. Shirley, the black male. Their identities are already an interesting dynamic, and once the road trip into the deep south commences, the interaction between their identities only grows in intrigue.
As one could imagine, the two of them driving into the deep south only complicates their situation. They both encounter and have to deal with multiple racist injustices that occur. Whether it be forcing them to stay in separate and segregated hotels to upright physical abuse taken by Dr. Shirley for no reason but his skin, the men experience it all. There are so many racial injustices that Dr. Shirley has to experience, even though he holds multiple doctorates and is a polite and upstanding man. Tony recognizes how terrible and unjust these actions are, and tries to protect Dr. Shirley through it all. Even though that is Tony’s job, throughout the story he becomes more and more of an advocate for Dr. Shirley. The men grow closer as they learn more and experience more together and begin to form a strong bond of respect and mutual care. As unexpected as the pair is, their identities mesh in an unexpectedly beautiful way.
If you are looking for a movie that speaks on so many different levels about identity and race, then this is the movie for you. This heartwarming drama-comedy will leave you entertained with an incredible story as well as reflective towards the racial and identity concepts that are presented. I have enjoyed digging into this text and truly recognizing its importance when it comes to race and identity, and I know you will too.

Diary of Systemic Injustice–Emily Pesce

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In a Columbus Dispatch article over the summer, Alissa Neese writes about systemic racism found in Ohio school districts. In light of recent events this summer, young students took to social media to share their personal experiences of racism in high schools. This article included the new Instagram page @deardublinohio, where students can anonymously share their stories about racism. The experiences shared goes beyond just black students, and towards both black and other ethnicities present in the Dublin area. This relates to the intersectionality of identity, a concept we have learned about in class. Many different identities are welcome to contribute to the Instagram page because there are so many different identities that are being negatively treated in a high school setting. This Instagram page tries to spread awareness of these issues within many different and intersecting identities.
Here is a picture of their Instagram page:

Multiple stories within many different identities have been shared, for example, a black student retelling the time she overheard her white classmates saying how their school was becoming more “ghetto” because more black students were enrolling. Another story on the page was a Muslim student sharing her experience as a third-grader when she was called a “terrorist” in class. The list goes on about injustices that occur daily in these schools.
Emerging Instagram pages in order to create an outlet for students to share their experiences are popping up in more places than just the Columbus area. My own hometown in New Jersey started a new Instagram (@mtoliveincolor) for the very same purpose. Social media can be an influential platform to make a long-overdue statement about racism in school. These Instagram pages also create a safe place for people to express their thoughts anonymously and still have their voices heard. These instances in America’s school system are a consistent similarity between modern-day high schools.
Here is a picture of my hometown’s Instagram page:

Although the Instagram pages themselves are not a systemic injustice, the content and stories that are shared are clearly systemic injustices in the American education system as well as a problem that absolutely needs fixing. Schools are the place that shapes young minds of the future, and if we as a society want to combat racism and discrimination of multiple other identities, we must also look at how we educate young students to fight towards justice. The American school system should be a welcoming and inclusive place where young students feel comfortable to be themselves and share their identities with others, instead of being attacked for their identity.

News article mentioned: Click Here

Context Research Presentation–Emily Pesce

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This week’s reading had a focus on the human condition and how a power dynamic is created between people. Simone de Beauvoir writes about the “One” and the “Other” as a way groups of people, specifically men and women, define who they are. In Beauvoir’s opinion, men are the One and women are the Other. Men define themselves by their contrast and difference from women and then create a hierarchy between these genders. By doing this, women become the secondary to men.

In today’s world there are many spaces where women can be seen as the One and men are the Other. The space of marketing specifically targets women as the One rather than men for some products and brands. In a marketing examination of brand gender, it was determined that “strongly gendered brands positively influence the attitude towards these brands” (Van Tilburg 6). This idea of gendered brands makes sense because every human has a desire to be desired. So, a brand positioned to strongly lean towards one gender is the act of creating the One and the Other. An article on the role of females in advertising discussed how this separated marketing exists because of humans’ need for differentiation. In fact, “each gender prefers brands with same-sex images” (Whipple 5). Each gender “prefers” their own gender to be highlighted because both crave to be the One for the sake of their own identities. An example of women being the One is Dove. Grooming and cleanliness brands are often dominated by women. Dove only recently released “Dove for Men” and is still a primarily feminine brand. These products for women are of high variety because women have been using these products for a while. Men, on the other hand, are assumed to be much simpler. Esquire wrote a comprehensive summary on men’s grooming products that determined the goal of Dove’s male products are “packing multiple products in one bottle” in order to make it “convenient” for men (Cutler 9).  The simplicity of the male products compared to the complexity of women’s proves the female position as the One in this case.

In contrast to Beauvoir’s remarks, in the human pursuit of becoming the One and the Other to define identity, there are places in this world where women become the One and men fall to the Other. In fact, the idea that this position can switch is an interesting outlook on how being both the Other and the One can create a wholistic individual. Defining oneself does not come from just experiencing the One or the Other, but really having the chance to experience both.

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