Author: rubin.237

Text Review: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a Disney+ original series for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tackled some very important and tough to talk about themes throughout their show. These themes related to some of the themes we talked about during our time in this class and since the series just finished this past Friday, I thought it was the most relevant and recent media to discuss. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, although a Marvel show which tends to be more action packed and light hearted, tackled some pretty heavy themes in our world such as racism in the United States and refugees around the world along with their displacement. In this class, we discussed themes like racism and the sense of the other, along with what it feels like to travel to a new place or be pushed out of your home. The show also touched upon the first thing we discussed in the class which was “the danger of a single story”.

Also, since this is a very recent series that everyone might not have gotten to yet, I just wanted to include a fair spoiler warning so I could talk freely about certain scenes for the assignment without ruining it for anyone!

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV Mini-Series 2021) - IMDb  Falcon and Winter Soldier episode 5 recap: New Captain America encounters potential new villain - CNET

The theme of racism is brought forth throughout the series by a character named Isaiah Bradley. An early product of the United States’ Super Soldier program during World War II and now old man, Isaiah is met by Sam Wilson, the Falcon, to discuss his past throughout the series. Isaiah explains to Sam that although he had been the only survivor of the Super Soldier experimentation program, where black men were experimented on with deadly unstable injections of this serum, along with having the same heart and courage as Captain America, he was jailed and tortured for disobeying orders even though Captain America did the same thing. It is not necessary to go in to his full story, but the main themes he tells Sam is that he believes the world has not changed. He tells Sam that “America would never accept a black Captain America and no self respecting black man would ever want to be.” Although Sam goes against this and makes his own path, the idea of racism still stands. Alongside this, the theme of “the danger of a single story” is also shown by Isaiah’s story. His legacy and what he did for his country was written out of history and no one knew that all of these years another Captain America existed, simply because he was black.

The theme of refugees and displacement was also tackled by the show through the series’ “enemies” called the Flag Smashers. They were a group of people who lived in the world for five years while half of life disappeared and then were displaced and ripped of their citizenship when the rest of the world reappeared. Although the circumstances in the show are fictional and unrealistic, the theme they were going for is very prominent in our world. Many people are displaced and kicked out of their homes due to war and disagreement around the world. The show expresses that these people should not be disregarded and instead cared for even if it is difficult to arrange. They shouldn’t be reduced to titles like “terrorists”, “refugees”, or “thugs” because they are people too that should be cared about just the same.

“Yo, Is This…” advice column by Harrison Rubin and Jessica Fischer

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Good morning everyone and welcome back to your favorite hot topic column, “This is Wild!” It’s me, Johnny Wild, your beloved interview host here with another great group of guests and a lot of the latest hot topics to talk about. As you know, here on this column and in these interviews, everyone’s opinion and input on these topics, no matter how controversial the subject, are well respected and we love to hear them all. Here to give us these inputs for today’s column, we had brought in two incredibly talented Ohio State University students, both studying similar fields, from their comparative studies class. Now keep in mind, they have been studying multiple controversial topics over the past twelve weeks in this class and have become pretty well versed in applying different concepts to the injustices around the world. Without further ado, enjoy as these conversations unfold with Harrison Rubin and Jessica Fischer!

The hot topic we had discussed for this week’s column is all about racism as this has been a hot topic for the past year. Harrison had given the lovely remark of “Well Johnny, racism hasn’t been a hot and important topic for only a year now.” Although there was a shared chuckle, we also shared the harsh reality that Harrison is sadly right. The recent events that seemed to resonate throughout our conversation were the Black Lives Matter protests and the storming of the capitol in the early days of this year. For those of you who are unaware of the importance of these recent events, the three of us agreed it is one of the most prominent examples in recent events of the systemic racism plaguing this country.

Harrison was able to give us some great insight and history on the Black Lives Matter movement and protests. The Black Lives Matter movement is a political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against African Americans. Although it was very prominent towards the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, this movement has been around for years already. The movement was actually born way back in 2013, after the man who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, was cleared of his murder. A social activist from California named Alicia Garza responded to the jury’s decision with a post on Facebook that inspired many. The post ended with, “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.” Henceforth the hashtag was born, and continued to grow in prominence with each new incident and protest. The incident that skyrocketed people’s knowledge of the movement around the world was the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The officer knelt on the neck of the unarmed George Floyd as he gasped for breath, giving out the phrase, “I can’t breathe.” Those three simple words echoed around the world and sparked the mass surge of this movement. During the time of this COVID-19 pandemic, the phrase resonated with all who can’t get a breath of fresh air along with the more important matter of the African American community being deprived of their freedom, humanity, and respect by those in positions of power.

We then turned to Jessica for a brief synopsis on the storming of the capitol. On January 6th, 2021 many republicans took to the capitol in an attempt to protest against President Joe Biden’s confirmation of victory over Donald J. Trump. However, this showing quickly turned chaotic. These protesters began to overtake police barriers to storm the Capitol Building where Congress was assembled in session to formally count the votes of the election. The police presence during this riot lacked as thousands were able to physically break into the building, destroying a focal point for our government and gracious country. Videos and pictures immediately surfaced of the disrespect displayed from these rioters. “It was a tough thing to look at and believe that was really happening.” Jessica said with a somber tone.

Now that we have some background on both accounts let us get to the meat of this whole conversation. We all three sat down to discuss the differences in the BLM movement and the rushing of the Capitol building. Harrison first started by sharing a personal experience. 

“I was talking to an African American friend of mine last week while we were both scrolling through the popular app ‘TikTok’. He came across a video where a white man was walking around a couple of police officers and teasing them. He turned around to me and said, ‘Wow, that dude is lucky he is white, I doubt they would let that action slide if he was a black dude.’ Little did he know I had also seen the video on my feed a couple hours earlier. I told him to check the comments because I knew what he would find, and he was greeted with many other people commenting almost the identical sentence he had just said. This was one of those moments where it was absolutely prevalent, and sad, how many African American men and women go every day fearing their own police force.”

Jessica also shared a similar story with us about a friend she was visiting and their time in your everyday restaurant. 

“I was visiting a friend a couple hours away spending time with her and another friend who was African-American. Towards the end of their fun day of shopping they decided to go to a local family owned, town favorite restaurant for some dinner. Upon arriving back to my friends house we all started discussing things surrounding the BLM movement. I was quite surprised to hear Emily, our African American friend speak up to say, “I did feel a little uncomfortable when that table of all white guys sat down next to us.” I guess for me I have never looked at people in the sense of white, black, indian, asain, etc. so I tend not to think twice about potential problems like Emily did. It did make me feel as though I have been naive at points in my life and was glad to educate myself better in order to recognize these feelings.”

Both of their stories, eye-opening and heart-breaking were a great way to kick off our discussion about the systemic injustice that is the treatment of white people versus black people in modern day America. As many of us watched, participated, and supported the protests over the summer last year, we saw a very different scene on January 6th of this year. The way the police reacted to the storming of the capitol building compared to the presence that was made known in every city where thousands gathered in support of the BLM movement was astounding. “While there were some unfortunate instances of businesses being destroyed, I saw plenty of peaceful protests where police were using unnecessary force against these people. If the presence of law enforcement was even close to what they showed around the country was the same on January 6th, there would have been NO WAY that those people would have ever been able to forcibly break into the capitol building.” stated Jessica. Harrison then added “To me, the existence of this systemic injustice against the Afrcan-American community was never as clear as when you compare the Black Lives Matter protests to the storming of the capitol building. There was barely any force to try and stop those who made it into the capitol even though this was not even a form of peaceful protest, and more closely resembled an act of terrorism. Those who were protesting for the BLM movement were treated brutally with rubber bullets and tear gas while they were simply following the laws and supporting their cause. Just witnessing how different these two events were handled, seemingly just because of the color of the people’s skin, is truly horrifying to see, and instills even more fear into those African Americans who are already fearful to even be near a police officer.”

This picture captured from a livestream brought to our attention by Harrison, depicts the police officer posing for a selfie with a rioter. We can even see there is a live chat posted on the picture with people commenting things such as, “Hey police do something we are all watching.”

These two pictures, captured by bystanders and supporters for the BLM movement, depict the police force they were met with while they were peacefully protesting in the streets.

 

This is clearly a form of systemic injustice because of the alarming number of times acts like this have been witnessed. This is such a difficult injustice to be righted since racism is so deep rooted, but a good start would be for police to have more consequence if it is found that they have unjustly treated an African American citizen worse than the situation required. The usage of body cameras on officers is also a good step in the right direction. Our two students here talked about the best way to relate this topic to class and decided upon Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the “One” vs the “Other”. In this case, the group of people clearly being treated as the “other” in our society, according to the situations being discussed, are people of African American descent. Although sad, like Harrison had said in the beginning, it is not a new concept in the United States. It is unfair and cruel to single out a group of people like this and no one, especially an entire group of people, should have to deal with such a fear and issue in their society. Overall, this is just one of the many examples of deep-rooted systemic injustices in our country.

 

References: 

In pictures: Police brutality against protesters at protests against police brutality. (2020, June 02). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-protests-pictures-george-floyd-blm-police-brutality-photography-breonna-taylor-a9545586.html 

Officer appears to pose for selfie with rioter – cnn video. (2021, January 07). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/01/07/capitol-police-response-pro-trump-riots-lead-vpx.cnn 

Rachel Chason, S. (2021, January 14). The freedom to ASSEMBLE, in two acts. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2021/blm-protest-capitol-riot-police-comparison/

Resnick, B. (2020, June 01). Police brutality is a public health crisis. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: Racism in the Police Force

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I was talking to an African American friend of mine last week while we were both scrolling through the popular app “TikTok”. He came across a video where a white man was walking around a couple of police officers and teasing them. He turned around to me and said, “Wow, that dude is lucky he is white, I doubt they would let that action slide if he was a black dude.” Little did he know I had also seen the video on my feed a couple hours earlier. I told him to check the comments because I knew what he would find, and he was greeted with many other people commenting almost the identical sentence he had just said. This was one of those moments where it was absolutely prevalent, and sad, how many African American men and women go every day fearing their own police force.

There is a known systemic injustice against African American citizens in the United States where the police force in certain areas have a racist bias. To me, the existence of this systemic injustice was never as clear as when you compare the Black Lives Matter protests to the recent storming of the capitol building in early January of this year. The police were brutal when it came to the BLM peaceful protests and marches. There was countless acts of police brutality and violence used against the African Americans protesting their rights after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, another example of this systemic injustice. Then, not long after, a bunch of white supremacists, some consider terrorists, stormed the nation’s capital building. There was barely any force to try and stop them even though this was not even a form of peaceful protest, and more like an act of terrorism. Just witnessing how different these two events were handled, seemingly just because of the color of the people’s skin, is truly horrifying to see, and instills even more fear into those African Americans who are already fearful to even be near a police officer.

BLM Protest vs. Capitol Riot: Comparing Police Response

This is clearly a form of systemic injustice because of the number of times acts like this have been witnessed. I feel like this is such a difficult injustice to be righted since racism is so deep rooted, but a good start would be for police to have more consequence if it is found that they unjustly treated an African American citizen worse than the situation required. The usage of body cameras on officers is also a good step in the right direction. I think the best way to relate this topic to class is with Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the the “One” vs the “Other”. In this case, the group of people clearly being treated as the “other” in our society, according to the situations being discussed, are people of African American decent. Although sad, like I said, it is not a new concept in the United States. It is unfair and cruel to single out a group of people like this and no one, especially an entire group of people, should have to deal with such a fear and issue in their society. Overall, this is just one of the many examples of deep-rooted systemic injustices in our country.

Ko, The Leavers, pages 1-150 Context Presentation

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A major idea I believe needs to be explained about this story is the idea of loans and a loan shark. Loans are a form of borrowed money that have to be paid back to the person who gave it to them, usually with interest. This means that once someone borrows the money, the longer they take to pay it back, the more they will have to owe. This idea of loans is what kicks off a lot of the story in this novel. A loan shark is a person who charges extremely high rates of interest on these loans, typically under illegal conditions. Now that we understand these two terms, lets move on to how they apply to the novel!

The story of The Leavers follows a mother named Polly Guo and her son, Deming. Polly is an immigrant from China who comes to the United States seeking a way to get an abortion and escape the father of her child. In order to be able to come to the country, she ends up making the mistake of borrowing a $47,000 loan from a loan shark, inevitably being tricked and hindering her for the rest of her life since she has nowhere near enough money to pay that back. Like most immigrants from this time, she gets a job working in a factory and tries her best to make a living. Since the baby ends up being too far along, she decides to keep it and ends up with Deming, a child she can barely support. Due to this financial instability, and inability to support her son, she ends up sending him back to China.

Loan sharks targeting naïve immigrants from anywhere outside the United States is a huge ongoing problem in the real world. Different types of loan sharks have appeared over time due to the influx of immigrants, trying to cater their schemes to them specifically, becoming more enticing and dangerous. There are instances where these situations become violent when the person who borrowed the money can not pay. Interests rates can get unreasonably high at such a short amount of time that it ends up leaving people with nothing. Many immigrants end up trying to resort to these people, unknowing of their true danger, due to how unaccommodating banks tend to be to new immigrants when they are in need of money. The story of Polly Guo and what happens to her son due to these events and people is just one example of the constant ongoing problem for so many other immigrants from around the globe.

 

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Little, Brown, 2018.

Filkins, Dexter. “In Some Immigrant Enclaves, Loan Shark Is the Local Bank.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2001, www.nytimes.com/2001/04/23/nyregion/in-some-immigrant-enclaves-loan-shark-is-the-local-bank.html.