I had the opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro and one prevalent aspect which I noticed is the social, gender and race inequalities. Speaking to a receptionist at a hotel one morning, I commented about the beauty of her country, the sunny days, and the beautiful Copacabana Beaches. While she shared my sentiments, she also pointed to the outskirts of the city and she said, “This is paradise, but out there is hell”. She was pointing towards the “favelas” as they are known. A favela is, in essence, a slum or shantytown located just on the outskirts of a city, most popularly called a favela in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Often, the economies of favelas are constructed on the resale of stolen goods, and life is quite dangerous. I decided to make my assignment based on this personal anecdote, so I have chosen the Brazilian movie: City of God. This compelling film describes the divergent paths of “Lil-Z” and Rocket, the two characters who live in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. In the film, the favelas are described as dangerous, drug- run cities where crime is rampant, and homicides occur frequently. In a compelling fashion, the film describes typical life as a citizen in the Favelas. The reason that I enjoyed this film so greatly is a combination of its use of image and picture, but also its underlying message: that hope remains even when life is tough. The two main characters have had their brothers as members of the notorious “Tender Trio”, one of the first violent gangs in the city. All along, concepts of social, gender and race inequities are exposed, especially in the context of gang violence. In addition to that the movie shows children committing murder and other cruel acts, to fit in and gain trust within their gang. Eventually, chaos is subdued when the violent crime culminates in an extreme gang war- which journalists and news outlets begin to shed light on. And finally, the government takes control. Rocket, a member of a gang, gets a fresh start and begins his professional life as a reporter. Furthermore, the criminals involved in these crimes most often ended up in prison or dead, as the justice system prevailed. Some of the Social injustices that we have learned during the semester are introduced in this film- most specifically the injustice of power balance, and the social injustices women face, especially at the hands of violent men. The movie, based on a true film, shows the nature of such systemic injustices that exist throughout the world.
Author: vocel.1
Yo, is this racist? – Matej Vocel
As I was thinking about writing an essay instead of a podcast, I was forced to ponder some exciting and intriguing idea- one which captivates and holds the attention of the reader. In addition to that, I called upon the fact that I was born in the Czech Republic, a country that only three decades ago was still under the clutches and influences of a communist regime. Because of my background, I bring my own cultural biases and ideas to the table. Furthermore, since I have traveled to many different countries as a tennis player, I have a variety of cultural experiences that have shaped my point of view. Now as an International Student I have been subjected to the diverse tapestry of views and lives in America, which has proven the title “The Melting Pot” as it is a place where people from all nations are willing to immigrate. During the class, I have been exposed to numerous cases of “Systemic Injustices”. In addition to that we have reviewed the concepts of power struggle, gender equality and race prejudices, among many others. As a result of my studies in this class, as well as my own personal experiences, I have come to the realization that media plays an important factor in the “norms” of society, even so much as how they choose to portray certain individuals. In many cases, individuals can be portrayed by the media in a negative connotation because of their race, gender, or age. In some instances, the media has created an image of the white, straight, male as the personification of evil. On top of that the Podcasters as our society have increasingly been affected by the evil of being a Social Justice Warrior. As the Washington Post states:
“A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will “get SJ points” and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are “correct” in their social circle”. (Ohleiser).
I am in no way trivializing or downplaying the cases of police brutality, gender equality, race prejudices cases- nor am I an expert on these matters. However, there have been cases of reverse discrimination. The term “reverse discrimination” sometimes is used to describe a type of discrimination wherein members of a majority or historically advantaged group (such as Caucasians or males) are discriminated against based on their race, gender, age, or other protected characteristic. These types of claims typically arise in the areas of employment or education. Occasionally, the term also is used to negatively describe programs meant to advance or promote minorities and address inequality, such as affirmative action. While the term “reverse discrimination” is not expressly included in federal civil rights laws, these types of lawsuits are generally brought as discrimination cases under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other statuses (Reverse Discrimination). The purpose for writing this paper is to describe how the media has affected the portrayal of news, and specifically how it has affected the portrayal of race in America. Thus, may seem controversial and it might raise some eyebrows or some angry retorts from different individuals who consider my views too European. Nevertheless, from participating and engaging in this course, I have learned to think outside the mainstream opinion, and study the facts of each instance, in order to make a judgement for myself. To make my case, I will bring some scenarios of some athletes from the NFL, whose treatment and media portrayal may be out of the ordinary. In February 2014, the former Baltimore Ravens running back was seen dragging his unconscious fiancée from an elevator. A second video revealed later, showed Rice had punched her and knocked her out. He was suspended for only two games and after the video was exposed some lengthy investigation followed. In this instance, I find that the treatment of Rice may have been out of the ordinary, because of his status as a beloved football player. Another instance of such a case is Richard Sherman. AP News reported the disturbing facts about his July arrest, writing: “Former Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers star Richard Sherman said Friday that he is “deeply remorseful” following his arrest on accusations of drunkenly crashing his SUV in a construction zone and trying to break into his in-laws’ suburban Seattle home this week. Sherman was belligerent, had been drinking heavily and spoke of killing himself when he left his home in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley late Tuesday, according to police reports. His wife, Ashley Sherman, called 911 to try to have police stop him.” Any other player who has been proven to do such activities would be behind bars for a lengthy period. However, in the case of Mr. Sherman justice is tainted because he is a professional athlete. He made the news when he joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, as he joined the reigning super bowl champions, despite his legal incident. Ken Nelson reported in his article concerning Sherman that: “Richard Sherman, who is mired in legal trouble stemming from an arrest this summer and five misdemeanor charges, including two for domestic violence, has agreed to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, becoming the latest high-profile free agent to join quarterback Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl. One of the best known cornerbacks in the league, Sherman, 33, announced his arrival in Tampa on his podcast Wednesday morning. The team confirmed the news by posting to Twitter a photo of Sherman signing his contract, reported by the NFL Network to be worth $2.25 million, only $500,000 of it guaranteed”.
The NBA has similar incidents with some of their star players, as well. One such incident is the scuffle and subsequent heated exchange between Montrezl Harrell and Luke Doncic. On October 20th, 2020, LA Clippers took on Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 in which Clippers’ Montrezl Harrell and Dallas’ Luka Doncic got into a heated argument- exchanging abusive commentary. Harrell was caught on tape saying “b**h ass white boy” to the Slovenian. Not many of the prominent media sources reported on the instance, and the NBA’s big names notably failed to comment. This incident raised some ethical concern for the association and the players. Many have questioned why there were not harsher consequences for Harrell, and why the tape of the interaction was not studied by the league. Notably, Larry Elder called on LeBron James, the league’s biggest star, and two prominent coaches, Steve Kerr and Greg Popovish, to discuss the issue. All of them have been long vocal about the racial injustice and racial abuse against the Black community but the three have not spoken a single word on the incident” (Sharma). In a tweet, Elder mentioned the three NBA stars and asked why they had silence in the issue. Some members of the outraged have called on the fact that reversed roles in this particular situation would have resulted in far different aftermath, however this is not necessarily true, and unfair speculation.
The final situation just took place less than a month ago: Jon Gruden, one of the NFL’s highest-profile coaches, resigned from his coaching duties after investigation into leaked emails of his. As CBS sports’ Jason La Canfora wrote “Jon Gruden is out as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. Gruden informed his staff on Monday night he is resigning from his position in the wake of leaked emails in which he repeatedly used insensitive language.” Gruden expressed remorse over his actions and did not deny them occurring. However, concerns over how his emails came to light are apparent. Even though the New York Times reported that the emails were sensitive, and of racial topics, the emails were soon published online. Questions have arisen about why such sensitive topics would be quickly printed. Coach Gruden has since pondered the idea of legal action or compensation against those media outlets who published the emails. He has since stated that he was unfairly hacked, and his emails were unjustly leaked.
In no way am I criticizing the media portrayal of important news events, specifically surrounding professional sports. I feel as if my background as a native of a country under Communist regime does not allow me to successfully criticize America. However, by mentioning a few prominent, recent news stories, I hope to reveal the imperfections that still remain in American media today.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Cody. “Jon Gruden resigns as Raiders coach after more leaked emails reveal homophobic, misogynistic language”, CBSSPORT.com, Oct.12,2021. Accessed Nov 12 ,2021https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/jon-gruden-resigning-as-raiders-coach-after-more-leaked-emails-reveal-homophobic-language-per-report/
Nelson, Ken. “After Injuries and a Call From Tom Brady, Richard Sherman Joins the Buccaneers”, NYTimes, Sep. 21,2021.Accessed Nov.11,2021.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/sports/football/richard-sherman-buccaneers-tom-brady.html
Ohleiser, Abby. “Why ‘social justice warrior,’ a Gamergate insult, is now a dictionary entry.” Washington Post, Oct 7, 2007. Accessed Nov 11,2021.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/10/07/why-social-justice-warrior-a-gamergate-insult-is-now-a-dictionary-entry
Reverse Discrimination, FindLaw, https://www.findlaw.com/employment/employment-discrimination/reverse-discrimination.html .Accessed 11 Nov 2021
Sharma, Saurian. “Why is NBA not reacting on Montrezl Harrell’s abusive ‘white boy Luka Doncic’ statement; LeBron James called out”,The SportsRush.com, Aug.24,2020. Accessed Nov 11 https://thesportsrush.com/nba-news-why-is-nba-not-reacting-on-montrezl-harrells-abusive-white-boy-luka-doncic-statement-lebron-james-called-out/
Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase- Jon Gruden, Las Vegas Football Head Coach- Matej Vocel
For this Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase, I chose to talk about the Jon Gruden case, the former Las Vegas Raiders head coach. In this New York Times article “Raiders Coach Resigns After Homophobic and Misogynistic Emails,” authors of an article explain how his actions and speech had a huge impact on people, fans and the community in America and especially on Raiders fans. People find out that in his email he was being racist and homophobic to players with different sexuality and towards referees of the opposite sex.
In the blog post from week 2 “Gender Roles in the 1930s and 40s” written by G. Jang, we can see a contrast of Jon Gruden and blog week 2 article. In the article the main topic is World War II is giving women a chance for first time to have a job in “non pink collar” jobs. The examples of “pink collar” job are nurses, typists and secretaries. Women wanted to be more invested in heavy industry and physical power jobs that only men were able to work 1940s. Jon Gruden was staying with this old-fashioned mindset about women in this society difference in his email, commenting that female referee should not be in football and female referee is not good enough. These comments are great example of injustice of participation female gender in male sport and business.
Diversity of gender roles, racism and sexism is main case of this story about Jon Gruden. Coaches should be an example and represent their team and NFL company in the best way, and racism and comments about women that should not be part of football. Women should be more involved in positions like referee or team management. The main issues are that I believe that unfortunately in NFL there will be more powerful people (like owners of teams, donors, and NFL executives) who are against hiring women in football than Jon Gruden. People who miss step like Jon Gruden should be fined and fired from football, like what happened to him, that’s a great example.
By sharing this case, I am trying to point at gender injustice and racism in sport. NFL is very popular in United States, and we can see an injustice of hiring women in football. It is a sport that men play, but no one saying that women are not allowed to work for teams. I believe that sport industry and specifically football industry should give women a chance to prove people wrong.
Contextual Presentation – Matej Vocel – Week 12
The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the crusaders, among others. Colonialism in the modern sense began with the “Age of Discovery”, led by Portuguese, and then by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, the coasts of Africa, Southwest Asia which is also known as the Middle East, India, and East Asia. The Portuguese and Spanish empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. Between 1580 and 1640, the two empires were both ruled by the Spanish monarchs in personal union. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and the Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with one another” (Ross, 1). From the beginnings of humanity the powerful and more advanced civilization will be expanding to adjacent territories and beyond.
With the ”Age of Discovery” the Spanish conquered South America and the native Indians ( bear in mind that this term was given on the mistaken identity of the people of ”India”) were disseminated and forced work in agriculture and mining. When they were proved to not be fit for such strenuous labor they introduced slaves from Africa. ” Slavery operated in the first civilizations (such as Sumer in Mesopotamia, which dates back as far as 3500 BC). Slavery features in the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1860 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution. Slavery was widespread in the ancient world” (Encyclopedia, 1). This duality of colonization and the motherland, resonates with the concept of Hegel of Master-Slave. In South America and the new territories, such as The Viceroyalty of New Granada also called Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada or Viceroyalty of Santa Fe : the jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.
All of these territories became independent and autonomous. The same fate happened in 1776 in the United States. When the 13 Colonies became independent from the ”motherland”. In thinking about immigration one has to bring the issue of legal immigration and illegal immigration. This is subject to a wide range of moral and ethical dilemmas that would be out of my scope to consider. Finalizing my essay on a bright note: people flee to find better opportunities for their families as the case of the Syrian refugees flooding the European estates as Germany and Finland or the Southern border of America, and even Venezuelan people leaving their country to Colombia away from communism.The premise is improving and struggling to have a better life. To this day , I have not seen people trying to go to Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea.
References:
Ross, Elliot. “The Past Is Still Present: Why Colonialism Deserves Better Coverage.” The Correspondent, 9 Oct. 2019, https://thecorrespondent.com/32/the-past-is-still-present-why-colonialism-deserves-better-coverage/34856800000-34372b68.
New Granada, Viceroyalty. Edited by Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture, Encyclopedia.com, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-granada-viceroyalty.