Text Review Assignment

  The text review I chose to focus on is from a movie called ‘Green Book’. The film is adapted from a real story about bodyguard being hired as the world’s best classical pianist. The pianist will hold a tour from New York and a story of friendship between the two people across race and class is been told. This may related to the course theme of ‘others’ and has connections with people of different races. I always have the opinion that ‘Everyone is an independent individual. We should accept, tolerate and understand the sense of being different from ourselves and respect the value of others’.

  Tony, the bodyguard who was employed by the pianist Don, discriminated against black people from the beginning. This was vividly shown in the film through the scene that he threw the cups which black people used into the trash can. For Don, who had received higher education, his difference was that on the one hand, he really wanted to integrate into the upper class society, but he had to live in hotels designed for black people in the South as shown in the ‘green book’. He hoped to use his talent to strive for more fairness for black people. It is through this journey that the film gives the two characters full and vivid images. Everything about Don is changing Tony’s inherent understanding of black people. In the process of getting along with each other, Don gradually realizes the value of himself.

  We all know that racial discrimination was very serious in the United States in the past few decades. The title ‘green book’ is a theme or hint. From it, we can feel the director’s emotional thread for the film. It is said that the green book truly once existed. It records which hotels, restaurants, bars and other places black people can go in and out. Although racial discrimination is a very serious topic, this film is always expressed in a humorous and interesting rhythm. We’ve learned ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ which is written by Martin Luther King, Jr. this semester. It expressed dissatisfaction for the white middle class and the church, and criticized the power structure. This letter is more like a speech, which can make us realize the tragic treatment of black people in the West. The climax of the film is that Don can’t have meals in the restaurant where he will perform later because of apartheid, which makes it difficult for him to accept. Martin’s letter comes from this. In the southern Birmingham region, even though the US Supreme Court has made it clear that apartheid is unconstitutional, the southern provinces refuse to implement this ruling. We need to be aware of the systematic injustice and that discrimination and injustice have been practiced, repeated and consolidated by generations before they gradually evolve into a widely accepted social reality. Man becomes himself only in his social relations, in his relations with other men, in his mutual recognition; An isolated person cannot be a real person. We should respect others and love each other.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Book_(film)

 

“Yo, Is This…” advice podcast/column(hair discrimination)

  I heard the word ‘hair discrimination’ before and was shocked at this kind of discrimination. Hair may be used as a form of self-expression. People grow hair, cut hair, roll hair, shave hair, color hair, and sometimes, we put other people’s hair on our heads. Culture plays a big role in how we view hair as it relates to gender. Curvy, smooth skin, thick eyelashes and long hair are all typical feminine features. The importance of healthy hair to female identity may be based on its role in the survival of the species. However, discrimination appears among such common item. I’m a person who hate discrimination and is willing to learn any topics which describe discrimination or against discrimination. The topic of hair discrimination has connections with this situation. A friend of mine told me a story years ago and she was a person who had different hair styles compared with other girls. There was one time that she was on the subway and a three or four years old boy pointed to her and asked his mother, ’Is this a man or a woman?’ His mother gave my friend an embarrassed smile and didn’t answer. My friend was embarrassed at that time. A boy with short hair and a girl with long hair might be the most common thing in the world. However, after some further research I truly found that some people will criticize others because of others’ hair style don’t match the ways that they think others should have. ‘The other’ and ‘self’ are a pair of relative concepts. Discrimination might appear among people and gender, class and race as main elements have large parts in it. Being one of the most sensitive topics in our lives, discrimination isn’t a strange word.

  Firstly, I will be focused on the hair discrimination among races as my main comments. The law passed in California banning discrimination against black people because of their hairstyles. For years, too many black employees and job applicants in the US have been rejected or fired because of their hairstyles. This is very unfair and also seriously affect the pace of life. I would like to find more information about the law and hope they can have any kind of hair styles they like. ‘Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities’ is the work created by Mbilishaka, A. M., Clemons. Systems of oppression have shaped the prejudicial treatment of Black people based on the appearance of their hair, from the era of chattel enslavement to present-day America. Hair discrimination is a social injustice characterized by unfairly regulating and insulting people based on the appearance of their hair. A sampling of 90 African American community members narrated memories of hair discrimination using the guided hair autobiography method. While the hair narratives revealed texture, length, and style were the most common entry points into discriminatory behaviors, color, hair augmentation, density, and product choice were also tools of ‘othering’ within a Eurocentric aesthetic value system. Sadness was the most frequently reported emotional response to these rejections. These findings extend the current literature on the psychological significance of hair within Black lives and pleads for policies of hair protection at work. This information isn’t very complicated and is related to the discrimination of black employees about their hair styles. I think this will boost me to have a better understanding about the situation and the laws which will be published. Rhetorical questions can also be raised in order for me not to twist the the reasons of why employer hairstyle prohibitions are racially discriminatory.

In addition, ‘Bias, Employment Discrimination, and Black Women’s Hair: Another Way Forward’ is the book written in 2018 by Crystal Powell. It’s also focused on the discrimination among black women employees.Racial discrimination against Black women is real and based on deep-rooted and long-standing racial biases and implicit stereotypes. Moving forward requires understanding this history and its contemporary effects on the status of Black women in employment. In recent years, people of color have been discriminated against because of hairstyles. In 2013, BP fired an executive because he had dreadlocks and cornrows, according to The Guardian. In 2018, a woman in Alabama sued the company for requiring her to cut off her braids in order to work; In December 2018, a black high school wrestler was forced to cut off his “reggae look” in order to compete. For years, too many black employees and job applicants in the US have been rejected or fired because of their hairstyles. This is very unfair and also seriously affect the pace of life. This resource will be used as an evidence to improve the credibility of the situation.

  For a long time, hair styles represented by dreadlocks have been discriminated against in the United States. In order to resist this phenomenon, Montgomery County, Maryland, has officially become the first county in the United States to prohibit local discrimination against hair styles. Montgomery County Council unanimously voted to pass the new ban under the crown act, and then the county expanded the scope of its human rights legislation. California governor signed the crown act to prohibit discrimination against employees and students in workplaces and schools on the grounds of hairstyle, becoming the first state in the United States to prohibit discrimination against natural hair. The bill was drafted by Senator Mitchell of Southern California. She hopes to create a respectful and open workplace. Mitchell stressed that the crown act is about tolerance, pride and choice. The law protects the rights of African Americans who can change the natural appearance of their hair without following Eurocentrism.

  The next part of my comment will be focused on the hair discrimination among gender. Short, bald hair may be more common for man, but for women, it’s a rare and complicated option. While some famous stars, like Amber Rose and the singer Jessie J, have made it fashionable for women to have short, bald hair for women, this option will never be considered feminine. Because hair is associated with femininity, if a woman decides to cut her hair, some people may think she is sick. (Although Britney Spears was an example in 2007, when she was dealing with mental health issues and shaved her head.) I agree in some ways the long hair might be the protection of women, having short, bald hair will truly made you differently from others. However, the most important thing is your view of yourself. If you care about others’ opinions all the time, you can’t be happy even if you have beautiful, long hair.

  I really admire Hari Nef. Hari Nef is a transgender American actress, model, and writer.Hari began attending Columbia University in 2011 and graduated with a degree from the theater program in May 2015. She once made a TED talk video named ‘Hair, makeup and nails keep us strong and safe’. As a transgender women, she may often received unkind words from others online. However, she showed great confidence and didn’t care about others’ comments. ‘Woman is an option, being trans is an option, and they’re options that appeal to me. We need to listen to people, not labels, not semantics’. In a deeply honest essay last year, Hari Nef dissected the prevailing misconceptions about transgender women. ‘Most trans women struggle to shape/frame their bodies in accordance with patriarchal beauty standards — not because these standards are good or valid, but because they preserve dignity and even save lives,’ she wrote. The actress and IMG model has now expanded on these thoughts in a searing TED Talk that name-checks everyone from Caitlyn Jenner and Lana Del Rey to radical second wave feminists like Eleanor Burkett, all in the space of just 12 minutes. Titled #FreeTheFemme, Nef’s talk is a powerful lesson in the dangers of shaming femme ‘aesthetics of survival.’ For the record, though Nef has a lot to say on Jenner’s ‘conservative politics and bumpy advocacy,’ she’s not here for criticism of the reality star’s fashion choices. 

Hair discrimination also will appear among male people. Magnolia independent school district is a school district located about 40 miles northwest of Houston. There are 13000 students in the school district. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas on behalf of seven boys aged 7 to 17 in the Magnolia independent school district. It accused the school district of prohibiting boys from having long hair which was based on gender stereotypes, a discriminatory gender policy. The lawsuit said that the school’s managers also treated differently in implementing the school rules. The seven plaintiff students were punished by the school because of their long hair, some were suspended, some were arranged to participate in the ‘disciplinary alternative education program’, and even some were expelled, which caused ‘huge and irreparable injuries’ to them. 

  In conclusion, based what we talked above, hair discrimination is very serious nowadays. We mainly discussed about the discrimination through gender and races. During school time, other boys have short hair and you also need to have short hair. Teachers of course, believe that the more common the better. In addition to the general view of the society after adulthood, following the theory of school days, boys still follow the common trend and make no difference. As the girls who have short hair, others will also have various opinions about them. It’s the same thing like boys with long hair. But I want to say that ‘just because you stand out among a lot of girls with long hair, you automatically don’t fit in with the crowd, and you’re not like them. There’s a subliminal barrier between you and them, so it’s natural for them to think you’re abnormal. Personally, don’t care about the eyes of others, stride forward and go your own way.’ By illustrating so much, I definitely found that there is still a long way for the society to change their opinions. This topic is truly important for us to learn and this how surroundings judge others. Like I learned in the class: The other is a reference that is both different and related to the subject. By choosing and establishing the other, we can better determine and understand ourselves to a certain extent. Without the contrast of the other, a subject cannot recognize and determine himself at all. Everyone is an independent individual. We should accept, tolerate and understand the sense of being different from ourselves and respect the value of others. The existence of individual free subjects cannot be ignored.

References:

1. https://search.proquest.com/openview/d8f877c24a77dc80b8b061b8840aa40e/1?pq- origsite=gscholar&cbl=276226
2. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-36542-001
3. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/byulr2018&div=29&id=&pa ge=
4. https://www.ted.com/talks/hari_nef_the_aesthetics_of_survival
5. https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/mbenw8/watch-hari-nefs-searing-ted-talk-on-femme- aesthetics-and-trans-survival

Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies(Week 12 Context Presentation)

As the author is of Indian descent, born in Britain, grows up in Rhode Island, USA, and now lives in New York, she integrates her own experience and understanding of growth and life into her creation. A common main line runs through nine unrelated stories in the novel collection. This mainly focuses on the life of Indians in foreign countries. The contradictions between different races and cultures are discussed in the stories.

Navigating between the Indian traditions they’ve inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In “A Temporary Matter,” published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

The Interpreter of Maladies is not only the title of the book, but also that of one of the nine short stories in the collection. In each of the nine stories, Lahiri presents characters who find themselves out of place, lost, or even rejected by the community in the case of Bibi Haldar. Among the stories, Mr. Kapasi is the literal “interpreter of maladies,” translating the symptoms described by patients to a doctor who does not speak the same Indian dialect. However, Lahiri makes the reader the figurative “interpreter of maladies” as she weaves the short stories of her characters and their plights. Each of us as readers interprets their plights differently, thus left up to “interpretation.”

Nowadays, Indian Americans are becoming more and more important in the United States. In recent decades, the group of overseas Indian Americans in the United States has been growing. Especially after the introduction of the new immigration act in 1965, Indian Americans have become the second largest Asian ethnic group after Chinese Americans. Indian Americans engaged in management and other professional and technical categories account for a high proportion of all ethnic groups, and the average family income has always been the first in the United States, Indians are also one of the most economically successful ethnic groups. The advantage of language makes Indian immigrants integrate into American society without obstacles. Indian Americans are realizing their American dream and becoming leaders in all fields. They have become one of the most dynamic, high-income, professional and integrated into the mainstream society. What’s more incredible is that it took them only a generation to reach this height since the 1960s. In less than 50 days of his presidency, Biden has appointed at least 55 Indian-Americans to key leadership positions in his administration ranging from his writer to the NASA, to almost every wing of the government.

References:

https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/interpreter-of-maladies/section2/

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1967.<https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/nicole.zaza/engl1301/1301-readings/library/interpreter-
of-maladies-by-jhumpa-lahiri/view>

 

 

 

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: Age Discrimination

  The word ‘age discrimination’ attracted me when I searched for information online. Age discrimination(ageism) refers to a view that the elderly are physically or socially weak, and therefore discriminate against the elderly, which originates from the stereotype of the elderly. Age discrimination can be accidental or systematic.

  Studies have shown that age discrimination is even more common than gender discrimination and racial discrimination, which has a serious impact on the elderly and the whole society. For example, age discrimination limits the way in which questions are raised and conceptualized, thus becoming a major obstacle to the formulation of good policies. The situation is extremely severe on the workplace.Older workers can have trouble getting promoted or finding new jobs.

  I actually found the bias of ages wasn’t a simple question in China. Chinese people are ageist. Why is there age discrimination? All stereotypes come from the ‘other’. However, what those discriminating people don’t know is that there is a very strange thing: people will eventually become others. In addition, if you don’t get married and have no children at the age of 30, if you can’t take the public institution or civil service examination at the age of 35 and if you don’t enter the management level after the age of 40, others will treat you like the ‘other’. The 55-year-old dislike the 25-year-old for ‘not being able to handle things properly’, while the 25-year-old reversely discriminated against the 55-year-old for their conservation. The experience difference of each age group is also very big and the generation gap is, either. 

  In the United States, one in five workers is over the age of 55. According to the statistics of the American Association of Retired People, nearly 65% of workers say they have experienced age discrimination, of which 58% believe that once they reach the age of 50, they will experience all kinds of discrimination.

  When it comes to legislation prohibiting age discrimination, there is a precedent in the international community. Age discrimination in recruitment was prohibited in the United States in 1967. The employment law of Russia expressly prohibits the age limit listed by employers in recruitment notices. The United Kingdom even prohibits words implied by age.  

  I used to ‘age discriminated’ the security guards and the janitors in my high school when I was still in adolescence. However, I changed my attitude later. Chatting with them in the Shanghai dialect, which is my home language, makes me feel familiar. Meanwhile, I’ve also discovered some interesting sides of them. It wasn’t just the security guards; sometimes I also heard the janitors chatting with each other about their children who are in the throws of the teenage rebellion period that we’ve all been through. I realized that the students and the security guards and janitors still will had many things in common.

  It is not appropriate to be in the habit of demanding others according to their own standards. Every era has its own characteristics, and it is impossible to do things in accordance with the previous model.Gaps between each other must be eliminated.

References:

https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/age-discrimination