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The novel, which was later created into a movie, The Help by Kathryn Stockett focuses on the role of the black maids in the town of Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. Stockett illustrates the relationships and interactions between the white men and women of Jackson and their black employees. These contrasting lives come together when a single graduate from Ole Miss, Skeeter, returns home after college and attempts to fit in with the other women her age who play bridge and gossip about their husbands. After finding little enjoyment in this lifestyle, Skeeter pursues her dream to be a writer and confides in Aibileen and Minny, two of the maids, to create a narrative where the maids tell their stories of working in white households. Of course, due to the fact that there would be major consequences for both the maids and Skeeter if anyone found out they were working together, the narrative is anonymous, and many other maids join in to tell their stories. The large success of this book leaves the town of Jackson in shock and finally exposes the injustice and prejudice present around them.

This novel and movie exemplify the discrimination in the United States that was not portrayed on the news but was still just as relevant as the injustices that were. The extreme contrast in the lifestyles of these characters brings in the idea of One and the Other. While the white women sat around sipping tea, the black housemaids were taking care of the women’s children and raising them almost singlehandedly. Then, they would return home at night and have to take care of their own children and find time for themselves. The white women completely separated themselves from their black maids and dehumanized them. Through the eyes of the children, skin color does not matter. However, through the eyes of the women who all once idolized their maids, skin color is all that matters. Therefore, in this novel it is evident that racism is taught.

Stockett allows the reader to take this idea away as well as many others. While the novel is fictional, it exemplifies the everyday lives of black maids fairly accurately by proving the discrimination they received. This indicates the continuation of slave-like treatment even 100 years after it was abolished. Stockett exemplifies the changes that have been made but also highly emphasizes the many changes that still need to occur. It is important to ask yourself while reading the novel or watching the movie, how has the United States evolved since then and what type of discrimination that is present in the novel and movie still present today?

If Beale Street Could Talk is a film that personalizes the systemic injustice against black men in the United States by law enforcement. For decades black men have been falsely accused of crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder. The system is biased against them and because of it, thousands of innocent black men have been incarcerated. The United States claims to be a place where freedom and trial by jury create equality and opportunity for all. This film exposes just how false that narrative really is in our justice system.

The film follows the story of a young African American male named Fonny. It is a love story about Fonny falling in love with his childhood best friend Tish. Fonny is falsely accused of raping a young woman and the film follows Tish and her family as they try to prove his innocence. It is a heartbreaking film that reminds viewers that every incarcerated person has a story, and for some of them their story is one of falling victim to a system that is against them. It is deeply moving and personal. The film reimagines the stereotyped image of black men as criminals. Fonny is kind, loving, and nurturing. Although the film is fictional, it is inspired by the very real stories of so many black men in America.

If Beale Street Could Talk brings to mind many questions, how can the justice and law enforcement systems in the United States be reformed to exhibit the equality that they claim to stand for? How can the justice system neutralize the power that comes with money in America? Why do racial and economic status continue to win over truth? The United States has a severe problem when it comes to racism in law enforcement, this film made that problem so personal that it is impossible to ignore even if you belong to the group in which the system favors. May we all humble ourselves enough to acknowledge the reality of the injustice that surrounds us and may we be bold enough to fight for it to change.

References

Jenkins, Barry, Adele Romanski, Sara Murphy, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave Franco, Pedro Pascal, Emily Rios, Ed Skrein, Finn Wittrock, Brian T. Henry, Regina King, James Laxton, Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders, Nicholas Britell, and James Baldwin. If Beale Street Could Talk. , 2019.

Fruitvale Station is a film, influenced by a true story, about a young man who was shot and killed by police in Oakland, California.  The movie is set in 2009 and tells the story of Oscar Grant III, a 22 year old man who was in a serious relationship with his girlfriend Sophia and even had  a young daughter, Tatiana. Throughout the film we see Oscar struggle financially, he had recently gotten fired from his job and was going back in forth mentally trying to decide if her should go back to sell drugs. We see at one point that Oscar eventually gets caught up dealing and ends up in Jail. This is just one example of how African Americans get in trouble and put into the system all because they were trying to make a living for themselves and their families.

The movie plot is spread throughout 2 days including some flashbacks. It is set on New Years eve, Oscar and his girlfriend drop their daughter off at relatives and head out to go watch fireworks with a few friends. They decided to take the train but on the way back home they ran into some trouble. Oscar had gotten into a fight on the train and the police were called. As the police arrive we see them pick out some of Oscars friends as Oscar tries to hide, a cop hops on the train looking for another person and spots Oscar and instantly picks him out of everyone on the train because he “fit the  description”.  Right away the cops become overly aggressive with Oscar and his friends, the cop even kicked them even though they were just sitting on the ground. Eventually things got out of hand and one of the cops punched Oscar in the face, once again an example excessive force. Back up then showed up and the cops continued to be aggressive t=with Oscar and his friends cussing at them an aiming their tasers at them which made tension rise, Oscar tries to talk to the cops and begins to stand up but again the cops became aggressive. Things got very physical again and the cops try and put them in handcuffs. As the cop and Oscar go back and forth with words, the cop uses the N-word, more specifically the hard R. Fighting begins and Oscar is forced onto his stomach and held down, then all of the sudden  a gun shot goes off and we see blood pouring out of Oscars mouth. Oscar ends up dying the next day at the hospital.

This movie was released around the same time the Black Lives Matter movement had picked up traction in the mainstream media. This movie gave good insight to the rest of the world on what police brutality is and what it looks like. It showed what an encounter with the police can look like for a black man or woman and why many African Americans are afraid of the police or do not trust them.

Keek, Jorge. “’Fruitvalle Station’: Educational Movies about Police Brutality.” Film Daily, 18 June 2020, filmdaily.co/news/fruitvale-station-police-brutality/.

Zero Dark Thirty follows the manhunt and eventual murder of Osama Bin Laden through the perspective of United States intelligence.  After the attacks on 9/11, the United States funneled billions of dollars to the CIA to combat terrorism in the Middle East.  For much of the movie U.S operatives have no idea where Bin Laden could be and conduct a series of intense interrogations to find out more information.  Eventually a fictional CIA analyst named Maya traces Bin Laden to a compound in Pakistan where the SEAL team was able to kill him.

Dynamics of power are written all over this movie.  Much of the movie showcases scenes of torture in which the US officers have complete power over their prisoners.  These scenes are quite brutal and it makes you question the morality of such torture techniques.  On the one hand, the prisoners in question likely have knowledge about Al-Qaeda and have aided in the attacks, but where do you draw the line of proper punishment?  I think that the makers of the movie wanted us to be uncomfortable with the torture.  You could see some of the actors faces as they watched someone get tortured and it almost seemed like they knew what they were doing was screwed up.  But at the same time, these people killed thousands and the CIA was put under immense pressure to capture Bin Laden.  After 9/11 the terrorists took a little power away from America, but these scenes show that the powerful will stop at nothing (even torture) to ensure their power is never threatened again.

Identity is another central theme of the movie.  Clearly the Islamic fundamentalists have conflicting identities with the West.  The fundamentalists hate the fact that western culture is encroaching on their ideology and identity tied to Islam.  The movie really showed the inability for each side to understand each other.  This reminded me of what we learned about othering.  Just because we as Americans do not understand some thing, we want to label them as the “other”.  This becomes even more dangerous when we associate all Muslims with the extreme, violent fundamentalists.  We saw flashes of this while reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  The author shows us how he felt like he was being pushed toward otherness after 9/11.  I think that the makers of the movie wanted us to recognize how clashing ideologies creates a battle for power, resulting in the othering of one of the groups.

The text I chose that addresses intercultural encounters and examines identity is an episode from the “Chatty Broads” podcast called “My Experience as an Asian Transracial Adoptee & Survivor”. In this episode, Kailee, the guest, talks about how her identity has changed throughout her life and her journey with self-hatred rooted in racism. Kailee is Korean, but got adopted by white, American parents when she was just 4 months old. She lived in a predominantly white town, and even mentions that in her whole high school, there were only 3 other Asian girls and 1 Black girl. This had a severe impact on her identity. Kailee says that she refused to identify as Asian, and throughout her adolescence, verbally said she identified as White. She was offended by her parents’ attempt to teach her about Korean culture as a child.

Kailee faced an internal conflict: “I looked at my life through a white lens… and so I have a lot of insight from the oppressing side and also from the oppressed”. Since American culture is rooted in white supremacy, Kailee from a young age subconsciously viewed White Americans as the One, and minorities, specifically Asians, as the Other. As such, she did not want to be associated with them. As a teenager, she worked at Abercrombie, and she explains that she used to hate when Asians walked into the store. She would be annoyed when they had broken English and even says she felt disgust towards them. Kailee felt better about herself by thinking she was above the other Asians.

This identity crisis that Kailee faced while growing up was rooted in internalized racism. She hated the fact that she was Asian. Kailee mentions that one of her self-hatred mechanisms was to tell guys at a party that her name was sushi, just to get their attention. This podcast episode was extremely insightful and I recommend that everyone gives it a listen. Kailee is extremely vulnurable and honest about how she dealt with being Asian in a predominantly White community. I thought it was so eye-opening how she admits to having disgust for people from her own race and she was basically in denial over identity. The most important takeway from this is that everyone has some sort of internalized racism, just because of the way oiur society works. The first step is recognizing it and unpacking why you think that , and then educating yourself to think differently. This is the only way to be truly anti-racist.

The novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a fictional tale that provides social commentary on police brutality against the black community and the everlasting impact this has on society. The impactful novel follows the life of Starr, a young black girl who is living in two vastly different worlds. On one end she attends a predominantly white private school, however she grew up and continues to live in a black neighborhood full of crime. Starr appears to be doing a great job at keeping her worlds separate, but one unfortunate night Starr’s world comes crashing down as she loses her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer while she is in the passenger seat.

Starr internally struggles with keeping her worlds separate as she has done her whole life. She radically changes who she is as a person from what she says to how she dresses when attending her private school to not be perceived as “ghetto” but she soon realizes that by shunning her identity she is doing a disservice to Khalil. After initially being scared and unsure of testifying against the officer, she develops the strength and courage to speak up on injustice and racism without concern for how others view her.

This novel does presents the theoretical ideas of the subaltern and the master and slave concept. The theoretical idea of the subaltern is presented when the black community in the novel seek justice for Khalil. Their voices are ignored and instead actions are taken to silence them such as deploying police force to block the streets and the use of tear gas. Angie Thomas describes the scenes as reminiscent of a war zone and that is the extent those in power will go to not hear the cries for justice of the black community.  In a symbolic scene Starr takes the lead among protesters and begins to shout that peace will not be restored until justice is met, but her passionate speech is met with dismissal and resistance showing the lack of care for anything the subaltern has to say. The idea of the master and slave concept is showcased earlier in the novel by Starr. Starr recognizes that white people are those in power (the master) and she changes her persona to appeal to them thus accepting her role as the inferior person in the relationship (the slave). 

Angie Thomas writes this novel to spark the much needed conversations on police brutality and systemic injustice. Her novel addresses the massive issue in this country that has not been addressed for years. For years the black community has been targeted left to grief for their loved ones whose lives are taken at the hands of those who swear to serve and protect and no action has been taken. This novel inspires us to take a stand and to let our voices be heard as we can all be the star that shines their light on this cruel, dark, and unjust world.

The film, Good Will Hunting is about a 20 yr old Will Hunting who is orphaned and has always got into trouble by getting in fights and also going to jail. On probation, he gets a job as a janitor at MIT, where he solves an elaborate math problem posted by a prestigious professor. This MIT professor finds out Will solved this puzzle and attempts to take him under his wing and help him with his financial situation by getting him a job based on his ludicrous math knowledge. Furthermore, the professor attempts to get Will a therapist whom he can connect with and help rid him of his childhood trauma of being without a Father and being beaten by every foster father he had. A major concept depicted in this film is socioeconomic status and classes. Will has never had money and neither did any of his friends and therefore they were always treated poorly by everybody and treated as thugs, and frequently got into fights. Additionally, the big shot MIT professor employs another professor but rather at a community college as Will’s therapist and frequently speaks down upon his achievements and makes him feel as if he is less based on his lack of success or money. Furthermore, the MIT professor frequently talks to Will about not hanging out with his friends because they are not amounting to anything. I believe this disparity in social classes brings up the concept of Othering. Since the MIT professor feels as if his wealth brings superiority in life, he believes all that are not in his social class or are not capable of reaching his social class based on intelligence are less than him. This ideal is clearly not true and I believe the movie speaks on this with a major takeaway of the movie being that a life focused on education to gain wealth and feel better than others based on your social ranking is a sad diluted life. Somebody’s social class should not affect how somebody is treated and looked at. I definitely think this work sparks a much-needed conversation about the effect of power and the concept of othering and its relation to the treatment of those in a lesser socioeconomic state.

Hidden Figures is a movie that came out in 2016 that was inspiring for women and minority communities across the country. Hidden Figures is about a true story of three black women who were engineers for NASA that helped out with the space race during the cold war. The ladies women were called the computers because they would use spread sheets to do calculations, and throughout the movie they moved up their work status and broke the glass ceiling. This movie showed the true power of these women that was hidden for so long. In the cold war, women in stem received lower wages and had lower status. Black women also were treated poorly which was showed in the movie as the women had to walk to a different building to use the bathroom. This movie is inspiring because it shows that women are more then just their looks and are their minds are extremely valuable and capable for coming up with advances in science and technology. This is similar to Persepolis when Marj’s body was sexualized and not taken seriously for being a women, which Ortiz Cofer experienced in school as a minority and as a woman in Story of my Body. The theme of minority women not being taken seriously is common theme in this course, and this movie does a good job challenging this idea. Hidden Figures shows these women in a positive light doing complicated work that no one else was able to do at the time. There has not been a lot of representation of strong black women in the media, and this movie depicted a narrative that anyone is capable of being smart, regardless of what ethnicity or gender you are. One thing that was a bit trouble some in the film was the white savior syndrome. There was a white male in the film that helped the women move up in the work place that never existed in real life. This is a problem because white people are not needed to help or save minorities, and that they are strong enough to make power moves of their own. The biggest take away from Hidden Figures is showing a story that wasn’t shared because of norms at the time that brings representation to a community that experiences lots of discrimination.