Author: villalobos.30

Text Review – ALL AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

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Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, better known as Joey Bada$$, writes about the struggles of growing up as an African American in his studio album, ALL AMERIKKKAN BADA$$. Listeners are taken on a journey through the perspective of Joey Bada$$ and the injustices that he faced while growing up. The main theme throughout the album is how racism is an ongoing problem that the African American community is facing. Primarily, Joey Bada$$ highlights the fact that there is a divide in this country. In his album, it seems as if he is preaching to the country of America and addressing its problems directly. Problems such as police brutality, racism and social injustice are all talked about in his album. Even in the title Joey labels America as “Amerikkka”, signifying that our country still is backed by the racist principles that it was founded upon.

One of the most profound songs on the album is, “Babylon”. In this song, Joey tackles police brutality and mistreat of African Americans specifically. He writes, “Tell me America is the land of the free, that’s a lie… cause nobody, nuh free ‘bout yah”. In these lyrics he is mocking the title, “land of the free”. This land may be free for white Americans, but the mistreatment of blacks throughout American history can really make people question the identity of their country.

One topic that we learned in class that is prevalent throughout the album is the concept of the Otherness. Joey Bada$$ constantly points out the mistreatment of African Americans in each of his songs in the albums. Specifically, he focuses on the fact African Americans are at a disadvantage right from the start. In this specific environment, African Americans are considered as the Others, while white Americans are considered the One. There is a divide between these two groups as one is treated far better than the other. This minority, majority identities are constructed by the systematic injustices that America has in place. There isn’t enough representation in the African American community. Joey Bada$$ uses his platform and voice to highlight the problems that African Americans are facing. He wants to eliminate this majority, minority groups and in turn create a singular holistic group.

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Diary of Systematic Injustice – Asian American Hate – Jared Villalobos

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One Systematic Injustice that I felt that is extremely relevant in the current day, is the increasing mistreatment of Asian Americans in the United States. The reason that I wanted to showcase this specific injustice is that I am Asian American. The mistreatment of Asian Americans has always been prevalent in the United States, it is just now that people are beginning to take notice. This surge of hate most likely stemmed from the pandemic that we are in, and Asians are treated as a scapegoat because the virus originated in China. Furthermore, previous president, Donald Trump, remarked the virus as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus”. He not only laid the blame for the Chinese citizens of Wuhan, but he also put a target on Asian Americans’ back. It is ironic because Donald Trump is putting the blame on Wuhan for allowing the virus to spread, meanwhile, he didn’t install practices that would prevent Covid from spreading in the U.S in the first place.

Now, anti-Asian hate crimes are skyrocketing across the United States. In San Francisco, a 76-year-old Asian American woman was assaulted by a 30-year-old white man on the street. There was no motive for this attack nor did the elderly woman provoke anything for this attack to happen. This was just one example on how Asian Americans are being treated in the United States. According to the New York City Police Department, “it was reported that there was a 1900% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020”. In another instance, there was a tragic mass shooting that took the lives of eight of people, six of which were Asian. Public health officials have requested that investigators consider this as a hate crime and charge the suspect as so.

Now, the insurgence of anti-Asian hate crimes is clearly systematic injustices as there hasn’t been anything in place to prevent these crimes. Furthermore, due to the wrongful grouping of identity, all ethnicities branching from Asian are also receiving hate. Asian Americans are born and raised in America but yet still receive hate. In everyone else’s eyes, they are still considered foreigners. The only way to solve this injustice is to educate the American people. All Asian Americans are still American and I think it’s important to engrain this in people’s minds.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/21/us/metro-atlanta-shootings-sunday/index.html

 

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-real-durwan/summary-and-analysis

 

Context Presentation: Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” and Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

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In Morrison’s reading, Recitatif, we are introduced to two characters that struggle with the realization that there is a color barrier in society. Through Twyla and Roberta’s story, we investigate the start divide between socioeconomic, and cultural circumstances. At first, Morrison introduces the economic difference between the two as they grow older. Then, she starts describing the racial barrier between the two and how both characters finally break the racial tension. Through Morrison’s writing, she manages to describe the racial tension between the two without revealing who is black, and who is white. This can show how people are truly blind in today’s world on how both black and white people hesitate to interact with others outside of their own race even when underlying conflicts are present.

After Roberta and Twyla discovers this racial tension, they do their best to try to dissolve this conflict. I believe that this is where Spivak’s writing truly shines. In Spivak’s essay, Can the Subaltern Speak, we are drawn to question the current state of politics and post-colonial studies.  What Spivak truly focuses on is the strive for equality.  She describes that the change a better future is a slow and steady transition. I believe that is the main focus of the reading, is analyzing that our system is unjust and unbalanced, and then making a change to make it better.

I think that Recitatif and Can the Subaltern Speak relate to the civil rights movement happening in society today. The Black Lives Matter protests tried to highlight the systematic injustice of the police system in the United States. In a way, I believe this can relate to Recitatif because the figureheads of the BLM movement try to inform the citizens of the US the color barrier and how African Americans are treated differently. Their main goal is to eliminate this racial barrier and get rid of systematic injustice entirely. Furthermore, I think that Spivak’s work really focuses on the goal of the Black Lives Matter movement, equality. The protests following George Floyd’s death was the beginning of the subaltern being heard and acknowledged. It’s interesting to see different pieces of work in this class being compared to real life examples. Can you find any comparisons to these two articles to anything in the real world?