The movie Marshall was based on a story of true events from Thurgood Marshalls young career as a lawyer. Marshall retails the story of an sexual assault case in the year of 1940 The State of Connecticut vs. Joseph Spell. The case about an African- American chauffer that was accused of raping Eleanor Strubing a wealthy white woman that was his boss. Thurgood was tasked to represent Joseph Spell and prove his innocence. Additionally, during the trial he was faced with obstacles that were created to hinder him to make the trial impossible for him to win.

In the movie there was one scene in the movie that showed injustices among both black and white communities. The scene that I want to talk about was when Thurgood Marshall first appeared to court and presented his application to to represent his client in the trial the judge denied his application and said that he could not speak at all during the trial. As a result, he made Sam Friedman an civil attorney be the clients legal defense. However, he was allowed to be present in the court room. This was an injustice because Friedman was lacked the experience to represent the client in this case, but Thurgood had the credentials for the legal representation. The judge denied the Thurgood Marshall for legal representation because of his race and the color of his skin. Additionally, this is an example of how even-though how white people used their power oppress black people regardless of the credentials they have obtained. They ended up wining the case and proving his innocents, but the issue was that since Friedman didn’t have the credentials for this case the judge believed that he could have advantage of making the trial unfair to prove the innocence of Joseph Spell.

I believe the movie was mad for us to see how big segregation and racism played a interictal part in court room trials. Additionally, it showed how African-Americans were viewed and still are viewed among the community today. Marshall was an inspirational movie that displayed how change can made among our community with wisdom and perseverance. It also displayed how one sided the judicial system can be when not challenged or judged fairly.

42 is a movie about Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play baseball in the MLB. Robinson is a remarkable man who has to deal with racism from all aspects; his teammates, coaches, and fans. The only thing he can do to stop this racism is to show the true talent for the sport he has and he does just that.

There are a couple scenes in particular that are wroth noting. First, in one scene Robinson goes up to bat and a player on the other team is saying some truly awful, racist things to him. This guy knows that Jackie Robinson can’t fight back or he will lose his hard earned spot. Robinson’s teammate then stands up for him and gets in the racist mans face telling him to knock it off. As we’ve seen through the semester, “the other” can often be put in lonely and tough situations like Robinson was here and sometimes that other needs help from people you’d least expect. Later in the movie, Robinson begins to lose it and has a mental breakdown after continuously dealing with racist remarks. The owner then comes down Robinson tells him he can’t do this no more while the owner responds that he needs to do this because of what it represents for him and the African American population. And that right there is the biggest takeaway about intercultural relationships. As we saw when we talked about 9/11 and the effect on Muslims, one action can cause a reaction against an entire group, especially when it is a minority. Here, if Robinson had quit, the white people would have labeled black people has quitters, losers, and more. This is why relationships and especially intercultural relationships mean so much because it’s bigger than you and it is bigger than that one single relationship you may have.

The writer wants us to see how one thing can cause such a ripple effect especially when it comes to topics like Race. Robinson joining baseball helped his team win games in the small picture. In the big picture, it opened doors for minorities of all kinds to do what they loved and help break that racial barrier. Robinson. like many other important historical figures, paved a way for the future by putting these intercultural relations into perspective to successfully complete the big picture.

The film Before I Fall is the story of Samantha, and her best friends Lindsey, Ally, and Elody. Samantha seems to have it all; popularity, a hot boyfriend, and a bright future. The story opens as Samantha is getting up in the morning for school. It is Cupid’s Day at their school, a fun day where Valograms (long-stem roses with notes attached) are passed out. This is a big day for Samantha because she is planning to lose her virginity to her boyfriend Rob that night. As the day goes on she receives a rose from a childhood friend Kent and Rob. At lunch, the girls make fun of a shy, outsider girl named Juliet and discuss the party that they will be attending that evening at Kent’s house. While at the party a fight breaks between the ring leader Lindsey and Juliet. Juliet eventually ends up running out of the party crying. Samantha, Lindsey, Ally, and Elody then decide to leave the party. As they are driving they are caring on a normal conversation as if nothing had just happened when suddenly a truck hits them. Samantha wakes up and she is laying in her bed unharmed and it is Cupids Day once again. Her whole day repeats over and over again. This is a story not only about young love but also about love for family and friends. You will see how the little moments turn into the greatest memories and even the smallest change in your actions can make a difference. It is a truly inspiring story that will make you think twice about the decisions you make and the actions you take in life. I believe everyone should watch this movie as it contains such a deep meaning towards the life you decide to live. You get a choice in life to become the “One” or the “Other” and it is up to you how you handle that role in life. You can be kind, generous, and caring towards others while still having power over the “Other”. The choice is yours. Be who you want to be remembered for.

This story resembles the “One” and the “Other” concept from Simone deBeauvoir’s book The Second Sex. Samantha and her friends are the “One” as they strut around school as if the world revolves around them. They act as if they are entitled and are owed respect. When Kent tries to talk to Samantha after he gifts her a rose she throws it away in the trash and acts completely offended that he even tried to speak to her, even though they grew up together. Her friends receive over twenty roses and they discuss how they mean nothing because they are from their stalkers. Juliet is the “Other” in this story as the girls make rude comments about her by calling her “psycho” and making fun of her hair and outfit. They even gift her a Valogram that reads “maybe next year but probably not”. Lindsey also dumps her drink on Juliet at the party. This movie is based on a novel and I think the author’s purpose in writing it was to show you that every moment counts so make the most of them because you never know how long you have left. Treat others with kindness and respect and live in the moment. Life is fragile, you do not have forever, no one does. What you do today matters, become the person you want to be and the person you want to be remembered for. 

“Maybe for you, there’s a tomorrow. Maybe for you, there’s 1,000 or 3,000, or ten. But for some of us, there’s only today. And what you do today matters. In the moment, and maybe into infinity. I see only my greatest hits. I see the things I want to remember. And be remembered for. That’s when I realize that certain moments go on forever. Even after they are over, they still go on. They are the meaning.” (Before I Fall 1:31:22-1:32:29)

A super hit and popular Television show called Never Have I Ever, is a comedy and drama story about an immigrated family, with an immigrated mom, a daughter born in the United States and her cousin that came to study in the US, as well as some other guys and friends that come along in the show. The show introduces the family as an Indian-American family with daughter Devi who has many friends but no Indian friends, and her immigrant mother feels that she will lose all her Indian culture and heritage because of that reason. Devi’s father passed away at her young age due to a car accident and the family continues to mourn about her father’s death. In addition, many other characters come along as the sitcom progresses and moves on. The sitcom is very diverse and involves different races, nationalities, religious background, as well as different cultural identities. Throughout the episodes, the family brings out experiences in issues such as discrimination and  to a certain degree, racism. 

The characters of Never Have I Ever are extremely diverse, where almost every character pictured is of a different background and some LGBTQ+ characters as well. The show brings out the evils, in other words, the systemic injustice, of different colored people and the stereotypes of Indian people from the perspective of others. The reason I say that this is a systemic injustice, is because of the stereotypes that come from being Indian and having immigrant parents. If the system tried to correct the idea of stereotypes amongst certain races, and people of certain backgrounds, then there wouldn’t be so many problems amongst people of different backgrounds in society today. This show entails Devi trying to fit in and be a normal girl at school, and ends up with two boyfriends, one half Japanese, and one American and then gets caught by her mom. She then gets put into a circle of over-piling stereotypes that at her because of her mom’s restrictions as an immigrant mom and not really knowing how hard it is for Devi to fit in. I think that the stereotypes and mild racism towards Devi brings out the systemic injustice of discrimination of different types and that is something that needs to be worked on for all of society today. This sitcom does a really good job bringing out the systemic injustice of discrimination, but also showing the diversity among a group of just six/seven people.

 Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a letter to his teenage son that details his lived (and learned) experience as a black man in the United States. It attacks the idea of race as a whole and describes how whiteness defines itself opposite blackness and through denying black people “the right to secure and govern [their] own bodies” (8). These ideas are explored through various experiences in Coates’s life and related to his son with both historical and personal references, all with the purpose of discussing “the question of how one should live in a black body, within a country lost in the Dream” (12).

It could be argued that the entire book is about identity, power, and injustice – these ideas recur throughout and change as Coates refines his thoughts over time. Much of the opening section talks about Coates’s childhood, which he compares to the white childhoods he saw depicted on TV;  while he was constantly alert, learning the language of the streets and having a gun pulled on him in sixth grade by another boy, “[t]here were little white boys with complete collections of football cards, and their only want was a popular girlfriend and their only worry was poison oak” (20). This seemed worlds away from him, and despite not fully understanding at the time, felt like “a cosmic injustice, a profound cruelty” (21). It’s clear that he often felt a sense of injustice, even in moments where it doesn’t seem like anything really “happened.” This disparity between white and black life in the US could definitely be examined as a One/Other relationship, even though Coates’s experiences are entirely separate from white people until his college years.

Later, Coates talks about finding his identity through his experience as a student at Howard, a historically black university. This was when he was first able to meet black people with different backgrounds than him, which taught him all kinds of new things about himself and black people as a group. He states: “The black world was expanding before me, and I could see now that that world was more than a photonegative of that of the people who believe that they are white” (42). Now, he no longer defines himself as opposite from what he knew about whiteness, and begins to solidify his identity as a black man through reading works about African history and by black authors.

The idea of power comes up in many ways, but the most common (and poignant) is through Coates’s experience with one of his Howard friends being killed by a police officer. The officer who killed him followed him across state lines under the pretense of looking for a suspect who looked completely different, shot him several times with shoddy reasoning, faced no consequences and returned to his work (80). This led Coates to investigate the institutions that allowed this to happen, and the ways that they are predisposed against black people and have been from the start.  This supports the idea that he emphasizes throughout the book:  that destroying the black body is a given and beneficial act for the US, and has always been throughout its history. This is the big idea of what Coates wants the average reader to take away. That said, the book masterfully weaves together themes of identity, power, and injustice in a way that allows almost any element of it to inspire its own conversation.

Coates and his son

The hit Television show, The Fosters, is a family drama based show about a family, two moms Lena Adams, and Stef Foster, and their five children. The show introduces us to all five children, one being biological from Stef’s previous relationship, two adopted Hispanic twins, and two foster children as well. Their family diverse and tight knit, we see Callie as the main character who is taken in by both by the Fosters. Throughout the series we see the Fosters go through many heartbreaks, trauma, and also things like racism and sexual assault.

The cast of The Fosters is diverse in itself, with LGBTQ+  characters as well as many characters of color, all of those of which are the main characters in the show. When Callie first joins the family, this was the start of it all. The show like mentioned earlier, talks about many serious topics. For example, near the end of the show one of one of Callie’s friends, Ximena, is an immigrant who is under DACA while at a protest, and Ximena is being searched for by the police, she then seeks help from a church. This is one of the many situations many go through in real life every day that The Fosters conveys in the show. Many systematic injustices are portrayed throughout the fosters, and things like protests are shown as well to show that there should be change in our system the one Callie and Ximena were at, and how action must be taken place. In the show we can see those as the Other, like Ximena, as well as many in the show, who have been seen as the Other by people like the police. The Fosters shows a family who undergoes challenges and faces them together, becoming a favorite by many because of the representation in the show.