Author: layne.111

Text Review: Squid Game

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Squid Game is a new Netflix series that has taken the world by storm. The series was released September 17th 2021 and has been record breaking. The series has had over 110 million viewers and continues to add to its own record. The show depicts the big disparities that take place in Korean life. The authors goal in the show is to show the socioeconomic separation and how the rich can control the poor. The basis of the show is a group of rich people going around the city recruiting people who are in severe “debt”. The person who was in charge of the game recruited 500 players who were in debt bribing them with a cash prize. The winner of the games would receive all the money and every person who was poor and in debt could not turn it down. What the participants did not know was that this competition would be a fight to the death, with only the winner surviving and no ability to back out. This depicts not only the rich controlling the poor, but how their lives are not valued as equal through using the poor only for their enjoyment. The players didn’t even goby their own names they were just given a number and that was it. This show perfectly depicts the current issues in the wealth gap in the Korean countries and the control that people with money have over the normal individual. This is reminiscent of Spivak’s subaltern and the silencing of marginalized people by those with more power, which in this case is money. Overall, I believe the author does a good job at getting the message across. When the show first premiered fans were skeptically due to the violence factor in the show but then realized the message that the author was trying to get across. I believe it gives an inside on the wealth gaps and current economic issues with the citizens in the Korean countries.

“Yo is this Racist” by Sebastiano Layne

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We all know that stuff goes on behind the scenes in many organization big and small, but recently stories have been coming out about improper behavior in sports. I’m sure you all of seen it too, whether it be inappropriate sexual misconduct in the NHL or illegal practices with cheating in the MLB. However, what I want to focus on today is the inappropriate language that has been allowed to circulate in the NFL. In today’s case, we will be analyzing the leaked emails of former Raiders’ head coach, Jon Gruden that sparked a controversial flame in the NFL and uncovered deeper secrets into the league’s injustices.

Jon Gruden was an NFL coach for over 15 seasons, 4 of which were spent as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. In the current 2021 season, he had led them to an initial 3-0 record, which began a promising look to the playoffs for the team. However, in October 2021 news publications showed several counts of Gruden’s emails to other staff members containing racist, anti-gay misogynistic language towards the commissioner of the NFL and other coworkers. These disturbing messages led to his eventual resignation, that honestly would have resulted in him being fired without his initiative. Many players spoke out regarding the situation, displaying their attitudes towards their coaches. Several people reflected that they personally experienced Gruden’s racist and homophobic attitudes on the fields and in his conversations with the team.

Raiders-Bengals Week 11 Injury Report: Kwiatkoski and Nixon ruled out

Before this all happened, there is some relevant backstory that makes this whole situation more relevant in the times. At the beginning of this season, the NFL proposed a league-wide initiative to end racism and promote social justice. The teams embraced this message by writing “end racism” in the field of their end zones and scribing different messages on their helmets, cleats, and other gear. However, it’s crazy to me that despite this seemingly league-wide acceptance and embracement of this message, internally the theme did not carry out to all people. As a head coach of an organization, you would think they would clean up their act and lead an example for the rest of the team.

The most disheartening message that came to many people from this story was how commonplace the players felt this situation to be. Many commented that they were not surprised this happens, which begs the question how much occurs behind the scenes. If they noticed he was acting in a way that they didn’t feel comfortable with, why didn’t any player or other staff member speak up? Couldn’t they see what he was doing wasn’t right? The Raiders’ organization is made up of several racial backgrounds and different sexual identities, so this quickly became very personal for many people. However, think about how you feel talking to your boss or person of power. Would you really want to contradict them if they are the one signing your paycheck, or in this case giving you playing time?

This is so reminiscent of an old philosopher’s idea of the master-slave dialect. Hegel, who coined this term hundreds of years ago, commented on how a conversation that has an imbalance of power is not the same discourse as those who are equals. Everyone needs to be a master in some situations in their own self, but this frequently comes at the expense of the “slave” that you are othering. Some people find it easy to belittle these “other” to advance their personal motives or fit their internal opinions. This situation gets even more complicated when it impacts such a large financial institution with many people’s paychecks and overall careers on the line. Although times have changed in many ways since the context of these 1800s words, I feel it is still seen in the heart of many individuals and power struggles in today’s society.

Jon Gruden Resigns After Homophobic and Mysogynistic Comments - The New York TimesIt goes back to the whole stereotype of standing up to a bully. Many times, building your own self-image as the master of your own self can easily fall into the trap of belittling others. This story represents how unjust it is that individuals in positions of power have a higher freedom of speech that occurs so long as they do not get caught. This promotes an overall discriminative culture when the leader of an organization is promoting such inappropriate attitudes and behaviors. It was shocking to me that with all the efforts the NFL is trying to do to end racism and promote equality, somehow the culture has remained untouched on the inside.

Okay, we can all agree that what Jon Gruden said wasn’t right. It’s never okay to use those terms talking to everyone, even if it is about your not-so-liked boss. However, Jon Gruden himself thinks that taking his prior words out of context to end his career was too far. Immediately when I saw the headline “Jon Gruden sues the NFL,” I laughed thinking there is no way he has any case. However, digging a little deeper led me to a legal rabbit hole that complicated my opinion on the situation. To quote ESPN’s article on the situation, “There is no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season.”

Ok, so if you found all these emails with inappropriate language, why isn’t the public aware of these cases? What else are they hiding? Trust me, I’m glad this man is receiving some repercussions for his actions. However, why is he taking all the blame when there may be even more going on? Why are these other individuals scraping free? Gruden alleges that the league was threating the Raiders’ organization that they would release many more documents if he was not fired. This begs the question: if you have these documents and know they show malpractice, why aren’t they publicized, and people held accountable? It begs the question in my mind, is it worse what Gruden said, or that similar documents are being used as blackmail?

Now that somebody spoke up, more players have been calling hotlines for their respective leagues. Also, it appears that there will be more investigative work done on other coaches and team officials whom they suspect have been showing improper activity. Other leagues, such as the NHL, have had stories come out about a lot of players that have been abused by people in power. Many of these NHL players, including Kyle Beach, starting by calling the anonymous NHL hotline to report abusive behaviors and have since then made their stories public. Although it is reassuring that voices can be heard, I find it crazy that there are so many more voices that are hiding under the surface. Hopefully, more voices can speak out against their “masters” and show that an imbalance of power is not enough to ruin the normal dialectic between people and cause injustice in sports, and overall society. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the future of sports and society today.

Sebastiano Layne

 

Context Presentation – Othering during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Week 13)

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Othering has existed on an international level for many years in politics, economics, social cultures, and many other areas. One common place that this discrimination can be seen that is not frequently talked about is in healthcare, particularly in global health issues. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the marginalization of “other” groups became more evident in both stereotypes regarding the nature of the disease and the eventual disbursement of vaccines and vaccination status.

First, Asian-Americans were almost immediately stereotyped in early 2020 as the cause of the disease and experienced much discrimination based on the appearance because of the origin of the virus. Research has shown that as the pandemic grew and cases rose, the marginalization and negative attitudes towards Asian Americans grew significantly. Despite the strength of this association, Asian Americans did not cause this virus and have no connection to its origin. However, many people try to form this association to have an Othered group to blame and look down upon to make themselves feel better.

This discrimination based on ethnic appearance resembles many of the attitudes Muslim Americans felt after 9/11 that are also reflected in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. As Changez navigates his life as a businessman in New York City after the attack, he sees America in a new light from the harassment and slurs he experienced. His idealized view of the country turned just as quickly as the attitudes of many Americans did. Many Muslim Americans have stated that they continue to feel this discrimination and hate ever since the attacks. Similar to this situation, Asian Americans have no actual connection to the COVID-19 virus. However, the are Othered by many Americans based on this appearance and trying to associate a connection that does not exist. It will be interesting to see if this bias and association continues for years to come.

Work Cited:

Dionne, Kim Yi, and Fulya Felicity Turkmen. “The Politics of Pandemic Othering: Putting COVID-19 in Global and Historical Context.” International Organization, vol. 74, no. S1, Dec. 2020, pp. E213–30. Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000405.
OHCHR | Racial Discrimination and COVID-19. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Racial-discrimination-COVID.aspx. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.
“Two Decades after 9/11, Muslim Americans Still Fighting Bias.” AP NEWS, 7 Sept. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/September-11-Muslim-Americans-93f97dd9219c25371428f4268a2b33b4.

NHL Chicago Blackhawks Scandal – Systemic Injustice Showcase

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Just a few weeks ago, it was revealed that a former Chicago Blackhawks video coach is being sued for sexually assaulting a young player back in 2010. The NPR article discusses how the player, Kyle Beach, claims his complaints were neglected because the team had a good chance to go far in the playoffs, which they did end up winning that season. Upper management ignored his concerns and as the player states, he felt he had no choice but to go along with it because he was a rookie in the league. As a new player to the team, it is hard to go against authority when your career is in their hands. Recent investigations showed that these allegations were true and several other incidents with other individuals occurred during that time.

This story is unfortunately one of many that come out in sports where the monetary success and protection of management is placed above player safety. Similarly to the recent situation with the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, these actions were allowed to persist because they had power. This is a deep systemic issue as it puts innocent players, who are the heart of a team, at an extremely vulnerable position underneath those who are giving the paychecks and making important decisions. This is reminiscent of a subaltern relationship as Spivak would describe. The NHL has all the power over their players and can silence them for their own benefit. One of the most troubling results of this is even after the fact that this assault has been confirmed, the team continues to defend their organization and claim that player safety is their priority. However, what goes on behind closed doors does not always match this idealistic mission.

Since this event, there has been a large push for the current NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to resign, which can be read more about here. He had announced his formal apology on both his personal behalf and the response of the entire league to the former player. Although many other upper-level management officials have been stepping down from their positions, Bettman believes the league is handling the situation in a respectful manner and placing the right punishment on the team organization.

-Sebastiano Layne