Author: meadows.300

Text Review — Bombshell

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In 2019, the film Bombshell was released as a drama narrative fiction. This film is based off the Fox News scandal in 2016. It tells stories of woman being harassed in their place of work by a superior, specifically Roger Ailes. To move up in their career or even keep their job, women in this film are coerced into performing sexual acts or being harassed with words by their superior.

This film tells a story of women empowerment as these women decide to step up one by one and share their story as part of a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, their boss. The biggest theme of this film is women empowering one another to speak out against the injustice and harassment they have faced individually in their workplace. This movie is a great template for understanding the gaslighting and gender roles that are played when working in corporate America. The film tells a story of what woman have to put up with and do to move up in their corporate jobs. It shows the power men hold over women in corporate America jobs. The film depicts the story from many different women’s point of views, to give the theme of women sexualization even more of a dramatic effect.

The film tells a story of being threatened to be silent. If you speak out against the people at the top, not only will you be fired but they threaten to make sure you never get a job again. Silence plays such a large role in the world of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Being threatened and scared into being silent by a man who is superior to a women, is a problem across the nation and even world. This movie has a purpose to encourage women across the world to step up if they are being harassed in their workplace. Bombshell is showing women that they are not alone and they don’t need to stay silent. Male superiors should not have so much power over women in the workplace that they can get away with this type of behavior.

“Yo, is this…” Classism within Relationships by Trinity Meadows, James Flowers, Abdullahi Abdullahi

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Yo, is This Classist

Trinity>> My team and I received an email from a reader that we think a lot of people will be able to relate to. Before sharing their story, we’d like to say that they asked to remain anonymous and we will 100% respect this wish. “Dear Trinity, James and Abdullahi, my husband and I recently have been arguing a lot and it all leads back to finances. He comes from a family of wealth who never had to worry about the current financial status. I grew up with a single father who had to work three jobs to keep food on the table and clothes on mine and my siblings’ backs. My husband doesn’t understand why I still have student loans to pay off and he gets irritated that the majority of my paychecks every month go towards paying them off. He doesn’t understand why I stress so much over our finances and saving money for emergencies. I am terrified of one of us losing our job and putting my kids through the stress of not knowing where their next meal is coming from like I did. He spends our money on trivial things like, money and wealth means nothing to him. I don’t think he understands what my childhood was like and I don’t know how to get him to understand. If I could just get him to see things from my point of view I think our marriage would be healthier. How can I stop my marriage from falling apart over finances?”

Abdullahi>> I believe many people can relate to this with their significant others or friends who come from a different background and upbringing than them.

James>> Classism is such a tricky thing to identify because it can come in many different shapes and forms. As described on https://classism.org/about-class/what-is-classism/ the best way to describe this situation falls under the classism definition of “disdain or shame about traditional patterns of class in one’s family and a denial of heritage.” Not being able to understand someone’s way of finances and understanding of money is classism. It’s something that should be understood by everyone, regardless if they’re upper middle class, rich, or ultra rich. Showing empathy towards someone else’s financial standing is required to be a functioning member of society.

Trinity>> What he is missing here is simply something that he didn’t grow up with, the anxiety caused by not being able to pay bills. He doesn’t have a clue in the world to understand what she is going through. In order to understand, he would have to change the way he has been living his whole life. When the wife was younger, her father was extremely conscious with his finances, and often this affected his mood and decision making capabilities. When she was young and experienced this, it caused her to have the same reaction towards finances. Children will always mimic their parents, and when it comes to reactions this is no different. The stress that comes with lack of generational wealth is passed down, simply because it is all a vicious cycle that can’t be broken. 

Abdullahi>>After interpreting her side, let’s look at his. He has constantly lived comfortably his entire life. He lives as ‘ignorance is bliss.’ If he doesn’t worry about it, then it won’t affect him. She is being much more realistic in this sense. The money is not pipelined to him through his parents. Not only that but the lack of a huge student loan you have to pay off is a huge stress reliever. Right now, from the sounds of it, they are financially sound. This can never be enough though. Especially at a time like this. Almost two years ago, the

 world was absolutely shocked and this mindset that the husband is in could easily have put the family on the street. His actions need to change. One thing that can be done is educating him. Perhaps bringing up stories from her childhood could help. If she treats some money saving techniques as normal, then he will soon pick up on. An example of this is something like leftovers, a true neutral ground. A lot of families take priority on something like leftovers. They would like to get their money’s worth for their food and keep it as long as they can. Others will immediately throw out food when they are done with it. Now no one should accuse someone of classism for throwing out food, because all this does is take away from real examples of classism and make them unable to be taken seriously. But, by integrating something like saving leftovers into someone’s life, it will seemingly become 2nd nature to them. By consistently doing other things that save money, it will boost their awareness for these certain circumstances. 

James>> I think something that could make the both of you a lot more comfortable is creating a monthly spending budget. This would give you a sense of comfort while also helping your husband understand how spending money on trivial things could be adding up and affecting you guys in the long run. I think this could give you guys the best of both worlds by helping you live comfortably while also being able to use the money you work hard for on fun things. 

Trinity>> I agree that having a balance sheet and budget could help you guys to plan to have so much money set aside for all your nee

ds. Although it is important to be cautious with your spending, I also think it’s important to buy something for yourself every so often. Or spend some of the money to take your family out to do something exciting. You can’t live your life in constant fear of money running out. This mindset could negatively affect your children if they think you and your husband are tight on money and they continue to hear you arguing about it. 

Abdullahi>> Back to what was said before, I think you should definitely share stories with your husband of your childhood. Tell him how the topic of money and finances made you feel as a kid. Hearing your concerns from more of a personal and emotional standpoint could help him to see your point of view better and understand where you are coming from.

James>> I 100% agree with what has been said so far. Everyone has a background story that sometimes needs to be told to someone, in this case your husband, to help acknowledge them where you’re coming fr

 

om and how you’re planning to overcome your problem, and in your case the debt. Again, going back to the topic of creating a monthly spending budget, by doing this you’ll be seen as more independent as well as being more comfortable as your husband will understand how you’ll overcome it. It could also be a team effort, he can also help you whilst saving money for the two of you to enjoy.

 

Trinity>> This instance is so common, well, around the country. Classism is abundant and it’s hurting the working class of America. 

We won’t fix American politics until we talk about class | Joan C. Williams | TEDxMileHigh

Abdullahi>> This video is a Ted Talk by Joan C. Williams. She does an excellent job putting classism into perspective. There is evidence of clear wealth inequality in the United States. Right now, the rich are the richest they’ve ever been. So if we listen to what Williams said, the most interesting thing I heard right away is how we see this deletion of the middle class coming from the way we view blue collar workers. She describes how back in the day blue collar workers were celebrated, and they had murals painted about them. This all changed however in the 70s when Archie Bunker from All in the Family was creat

ed and depicted a fat stupid blue collar worker. Then came someone like Homer Simpson as another example. You have to remember who writes these characters, Hollywood writers making Williams. Really put things like that in a different perspective because I can think of 20 other examples of this. This destroyed the middle class, now more than ever kids didn’t want to accept these jobs and ultimately became poorer. This is an extremely 

 

interesting concept to think about. We can almost track what is called the death of the American dream to these certain cultural concepts. Another one that’s hurting is how different parts of the country view some of the other parts of the country. Such as hillbillie

 

s or hicks. It’s classism at it’s finest and it’s often overlooked because so many of the people that people associate with don’t find it offensive. Those people at the butt of their jokes are the heart of the working class. They should be honored and respected. If we can try and go back to the way we were before where we respected the working class and they were honored, the country would succeed.

 

James>>Classism is a tricky concept to understand, because most people don’t recognize their Classist actions. This is because people commonly associate themselves with pe
ople with the same income. Please try and be more conscious about your statements and consider yourself in someone else’s shoes. As soon as we can do this, working class of the country will succeed and we will all live in a better place.

Sources: 

 

Christina, Posted by. “Classism and Disability.” Christina Irene, 28 Apr. 2020,                                                                http://www.christinairene.com/wp/archives/1311. 

“Class Action.” Class Action, 7 June 2021, https://classism.org/. 

“Classism.” Learned Curiosity, 17 Jan. 2011,                            https://learnedcuriosity.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/classism/. 

“What Is Classism.” Class Action, 19 Feb. 2020,                        https://classism.org/about-class/what-is-classism/.

DSI Showcase – College Affordability

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An injustice that isn’t talked about much once you are in college is something called the excellence gap. Students that come from low-income families see college as unaffordable and as something that isn’t in their future from a young age. This is all due to the price of attending college. Students from a lower income are eight times less likely to graduate college than those in a middle to higher class. Sure there is financial aid but it still doesn’t completely fill the gap of the amount of money they need to be able to go. Even coming from a middle-high class myself, I didn’t know much about financial aid or understand how it works. There needs to be more information provided to students, especially those from lower class communities, about how financial aid works. Schools need to do better at providing aid to fill the gaps from federal and state financial aid. Institutions should prioritize the grants and scholarships they give out on a need base. From the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, I learned that 45 percent of students in the highest income bracket received an average of $5,800 in aid that exceeded their need. That is money that is just sitting around for these students when it could be providing an education and filling in a financial aid for students who need it. It is an injustice that institutional aid is more likely to be provided to higher income students than lower income students, because institutions see them as a “better fit” so they provide more aid to get them to come to their school. The government and system needs to put something in place to prioritize aid to those who need it rather than exceeding aid for those who don’t need it. The system needs to do better at eliminating the financial burden lower income students feel when they are trying to achieve a higher education. Attending college should not be a right only for students who come from a higher income family. Institutions and the government need to do better for everyone, not just students who have come from a middle to high class family.
In today’s society, not attending college automatically puts you in this subaltern group and of a lower status in society. You get looked down upon by society and you automatically get stereotyped as “you must not have been smart enough to get into college.” You are limited on job opportunities because someone else will get the job because they have a degree when you are just as capable as doing the job to the same level of standard. There are people who think that you will never amount to anything without a college education. A college education is not something that is easily accessible. You either have to come up with thousands of dollars quickly or get loans that you will be paying off for years. A college education does not amount to one’s worth.

Sources: https://www.jkcf.org/research/making-college-affordable-providing-low-income-students-with-the-knowledge-and-resources-needed-to-pay-for-college/

Transracial Adopted Children Experiencing Bullying – by Trinity Meadows (Week 11)

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Approximately 2,900 children were adopted from other countries in 2019 according to the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Studies find that internationally adopted children are more likely to be a victim of bullies, both overt aggression and relation victimization. Overt aggression bullying is hitting, pushing, and name calling. While relational aggression bullying is purpose exclusion from groups and making up stories about a child. This led to finding out that these adopted children were more likely to be suffering from anxiety and depression.
Being adopted and welcomed into a new family and country can be such a happy and exciting time for a child. This experience can quickly be ruined by attending a school where everything is foreign. In 2017, my cousin, Saraphina, was adopted from Haiti. In my families’ small town, she is the only person of color, so she has stood out when surrounded by her peers from the beginning. Unfortunately, she has started to experience being bullied at school. Transracial adopted children are more vulnerable to bullying in elementary school as kids start to notice differences and would rather conform to their peers than stand out. These children have a hard time speaking up to their parents about the bullying due to their skin color because they think their parents won’t understand since they are white.
As we see in “The Leavers,” Deming gets bullied by Cody and called a “Chinese retard.” While trying to adapt to a new family and get comfortable with them Deming has to struggle internally with the bullying he is experiencing at school. This is something many adopted children experience as they don’t know their place in their new environment just yet. Adoptive parents have the responsibility of opening up to their children and talking about racism. Adoptive parents engagement with their child and their community can help to have a positive environment surrounding their child’s life. Transracial adopted children can be under a lot of stress and anxiety when joining a new family and environment, its up to the parents to help the child accept who they are and feel welcomed and as if they belong.

Sources:

Are Transracial Adoptees More Likely to Be Bullied


https://baby.lovetoknow.com/adoption/how-many-children-are-adopted-each-year

Adopted Kids: More Likely to Bully or be Bullied?