Author: pickens.128

Text Review- Do the Right Thing

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Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing arouses conversation 32 years after its release. The movie brings the topics of racism, police brutality, discrimination and inner-city life to light. The film allows a conversation to spark between races about the discriminations on colored people.

 

Mookie is a young man living in a Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He works as a delivery man at a pizza shop where an Italian owner Salvotore “Sal” Frangoine has owned it for 25 years. His older son Giuseppe “Pino”, is a racist that disrespects all the neighborhood black people.  Sal’s younger son Vito is friends with Mookie and they have a brotherly bond. 

 

One day a man named Buggin Out, who is a man that talks about civil rights, entered Sal’s pizza shop. He demanded that Sal put up pictures of black celebrities since his pizzeria is in a black neighborhood. Sal refuses and this causes an argument leading Mookie to take Buggin Out outside. Buggin Out then returns to the shop with a man named Radio Raheem who earlier got into an argument with Sal for playing his music too loud. They then all get into a fight that is led outside where the police are. Buggin Out is arrested while another police officer chokes Radio Raheem, killing him. This is when “Othering” is depicted. This enraged the spectators then turned to Sal’s restaurant and started destroying his restaurant. The next day Mookie returns to the restaurant wanting his pay. Sal then angrily throws the money at him and tells him he is fired because he blames him for everything that happened. They eventually reconcile at the end. 

 

This film allowed many conversations to happen when it comes to injustice. Even people who are not a part of the colored community can have an understanding of what they go through. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing allows everyone to have a conversation about bettering the injustices in the world. 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

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As a child I was taught to love everyone for who they are. As a kid you think that everyone has the same views as you do. It wasn’t until I was in the sixth grade that I found out that everyone’s view was not the same as mine.

In sixth grade I made a friend whose name was Marcus. His confidence and humor drew me to him as a person. We had become so close that we told each other our deepest darkest secrets. One day he revealed to me that he was gay. At that point in my life I had never met someone that was not heterosexual. With him telling me this news it did not change my view of him. I still loved him as a person and even more as a friend. Within weeks my whole class knew of his secret that he revealed to me. The way that they started treating Marcus was different. Before he was one of the most popular guys in the class, now people would barely speak to him. Eventually this progressed to people, especially boys, bullying him. They would do things like slap the books out his hand, or push him around in the hallways. I always used to tell Marcus to let the teachers know, but he never wanted to. It angered me to know that people had started treating my friend differently because of who he found attractive. This was my first instance of an injustice when it came to sexuality. Marcus was viewed as “Other” while all of our other classmates were “One”. They had a power over him that he could not overcome and it was frustrating to witness. 

I believe there could be many solutions when it comes to this problem. One of the first solutions is to teach our children to love everyone for who they are. Every human is not the same and teaching little ones to spread love to everyone would have a huge impact. Another solution is people in school having repercussions for bullying people for their sexuality. I witnessed a teacher seeing the bullying and doing nothing about it. The last solution is educating people about the LGBTQ community. This community grows everyday and I believe it is important to treat everyone the same. Rather than treating them differently, we should welcome them with open arms, because at the end of the day we are all humans.

“Things Fall Apart” Context Presentation (Week 6)

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The reading we will be observing this week is the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. The novel is about the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community. He is ultimately banished for seven years for killing a clansman. During his banishment he realized a problem steadily rising. The intrusion of white missionaries and the colonial government into the Igbo tribe. 

March 25, 1807, The Beginning of Colonialism in Nigeria 

 

After the British government obtained control of the Royal Niger Company territories they first made their statement by renaming the territories. The northern areas were renamed the “Protectorate of Northern Nigeria” and the lower regions were renamed “Protectorate of Southern Nigeria”. Zungeru was the new capital of the north and Lagos remained the capital in the south. On January 1, 1914, a British colonial administrator named Frederick Lugard recommended that the two protectorates become one under one governor. Lugard set out new principles known as the “indirect rule”. This meant that the local government was empowered by the traditional chiefs but they were susceptible to the guidance of European officers.   

The changes did not stop after this. Christianity, Western education, and the English language spread over the nation. New things were developed such as money, communication and transportation. The Nigerian economy became based on the export of crops and many people in different parts of the country had to move elsewhere for work. Some of them moved to work as tenant farmers while others used other skills to find jobs such as traders, artisans, etc. The British also took preemptive measures to prevent any united opposition. They did this by instilling a rule called divide-and-rule policy where they kept Nigerian groups separated from one another. 

In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo saw this coming to the Igbo tribe and the people of Nigeria. The British came in with a plan to colonize Nigeria and they were successful. This ultimately led people of Nigeria confused, scared and unsure what their next move was going to be. 

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Publishing Group, 1958.

Britannica. “Nigeria as a Colony.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/Nigeria/Nigeria-as-a-colony. 

Stragalinos, Amaiya. “Colonialism in Nigeria Timeline.” Timetoast Timelines, 25 Mar. 1807, https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/colonialism-in-nigeria–2.