Author: perez.687

Text Review Assignment- Crazy Rich Asians

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Crazy Rich Asians was released in August of 2018. The movie begins with Rachel accompanying her boyfriend Nick to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. However, what she doesn’t know is that her longtime boyfriend and his family happen to be extremely wealthy.  Coming from such a wealthy family, Nick is considered to be one of Singapore’s most eligible bachelors. 

The film focuses on Rachel Chu and Nick Young, an Asian couple faced with socioeconomic differences. Rachel Chu, a normal girl from New York who was born an Asian American, realizes just how different her life is from Nick’s when meeting his family and closest friends for the very first time. When meeting Nick’s family for the first time, Rachel is shocked to realize just how different they are both culturally and socioeconomically. Although Rachel is Asian, growing up in America has made her more accustomed to an Americanized way of living. Therefore, when meeting Nick and his family she is shocked to realize just how culturally different they’re families raised them. 

Crazy Rich Asians is an interesting film that utilizes the concept of othering. Throughout the movie Nick’s mother Elanor is constantly patronizing Rachel and making her feel lesser because of her socioeconomic and American background. This lower socioeconomic background and being raised as an Asian American classifies Rachel as an “other” in Elanor’s eyes. Because Rachel and Nick come from two very different worlds, Elanor believes Rachel is not good enough to be with her son Nick. 

Therefore, because of these differences, Rachel is seeking approval from Nick’s family the entire trip. The need for Elanor as well as Nick’s other disapproving family members throughout the film goes to show just how the classification of being an “other” impacts Rachel. She tries to win Elanor’s approval the entirety of the movie by eradicating her title of being an “other”

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Week 15 Context Presentation-Regarding The Pain of Others

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Sontag discusses just how photography is used to illustrate the good, the bad, and the evil within her work Regarding the Pain of Others. Sontag focuses on how individuals seem to be perceiving these photographs of varying aspects of life. Photographs can capture such a surreal moment in life but when presented to an audience, individuals begin to formulate their own opinions of the situation at hand.

Individuals seem to be losing compassion and going “numb” at rapid rates. According to studies, as the number of the victims in a crisis increases, compassionate emotion and behavior decreases (Seppala, Emma, et al). This is an interesting concept to look at because normally we would think as the number of victims increase, the number of individuals wanting to support and help these victims increase. However, the trend of individuals wanting to help those in need shows the exact opposite response. 

Sontag discusses how photographs may act as a factor in the inability to sympathize with those experiencing mass suffering. Photographs that capture such mass suffering often add a sort of filter over the situation, often “beautifying” it. “We need to account for not just the power of image but their powerlessness, their importance, their abjection” (Thomas 10). As Thomas states, photographs are often seen as powerless when they should reflect importance. Further, in the video Images of Trauma Dr. Maurice Stevens and Dr. Ryann Patrus discusses how many individuals view photographs of mass suffering. They uncover the idea that many people use photos to distance themselves from the situation and realize how grateful they are that they do not have to experience what is being pictured. 

“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic” (Cameron and Payne).This quote by Joseph Stalin, while it seems harsh, is an example of the collapse of compassion constantly occurring. The photos we view of mass suffering could be seen as a form of othering. The way in which individuals care very little for mass groups suffering is a reflection of an invisible hierarchy in place. As explained in the video Images of Trauma, many individuals use photographs of mass suffering as a way of distancing themselves from situations they are not experiencing firsthand. Thus, this distancing and ignorance of mass suffering creates an otherness out of those individuals seeking help. 

 

Bibliography

Cameron, C. Daryl, and B. Keith Payne. “Escaping Affect: How Motivated Emotion Regulation Creates Insensitivity to Mass Suffering.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 100, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–15., https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021643. 

Seppala, Emma, et al. The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. Oxford University Press, 2017. 

Thomas, Mitchell W J. What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010. 

Systemic Injustice Within the School System

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I have decided to focus on the school system and just how systemic injustice impacts an individual’s chances at receiving a “good education”. Black students simply do not have the opportunities that white students do. Higher education is considered a luxury and oftentimes a dream so far out of reach for these students out of color. The attendance of people of color at inner city schools is a perfect example of systemic injustice at play within our school system. Inner city schools are predominantly made up of African American and Hispanic students, meanwhile white students make up most of the public and private school population. These students attending inner city schools are scoring significantly lower on state tests in comparison to students attending private schools. Overall, because those attending inner city schools are coming from low income families, the education they are receiving is significantly worse than the higher income families sending their children to private schools. Thus meaning, lower income people of color were set up for failure to begin with. They will never receive the type of education their white peers receive, leading these students to a future in which higher education seems unlikely. Because private school is so expensive, it is almost impossible for those of lower income and students of color to gain access to better education. Ultimately students that attend private school and even those students attending public schools have a better opportunity at furthering their education past high school than those students attending an inner city school. Another issue within the school system is the constant reliance of law enforcement in response to minor issues within students of color. Statistics show that law enforcement is being called at a substantially higher rate for black students in comparison to white students. However, law enforcement is being called for minor altercations in which black students are being arrested for, meanwhile many white students are let off with a warning for the same altercation. These constant arrests of innocent students of color is known as the “school to prison pipeline”. The “school to prison pipeline” can be explained by people of color being continuously arrested causing them to drop out of school. These examples of systemic injustice reflect just how one sided the school system is. It is almost as if the school system is put in place to discourage students of color from pursuing a higher degree. 

Race Relations & Central City Schools: It’s time for an experiment with vouchers

https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2017/11/systemic-racism-education

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/24/more-hispanics-blacks-enrolling-in-college-but-lag-in-bachelors-degrees/

https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/millions-black-students-attend-public-schools-are-highly-segregated-race-and-income