Posts

Haleigh Wilson Text Review on Them series

The new amazon series “Them” by Little Marvin is about injustices within America and a family experiencing the eye of the storm of Jim Crow laws and redlining. Each character experienced their own identity crisis due to their environment.  The family as a whole are singled out in a all-white neighborhood in Compton easily making them the others. The oldest daughter, Ruby, attends an all-white school nearby where she experiences what she thought the family was running away from since they moved to the west coast. She then begins to experience her identity crisis by wishing she was white. The father, Henry, knew it would be a struggle being the only black aero engineer at his new job. Time after time he is subtly reminded that he is black and beneath them. The wife, Lucky, is driven crazy by the neighborhood wives with an interesting form of torment. The ladies sat outside her house and everyone played a different tune on the radio making a disturbing sound that blared into the house. Her pervious experiences back south along with current issues she was facing in her new home, temporally drove her mad.

This series can be related to Toni Morrison’s Recitatif dealing with power based on social class and race. It was hard for the neighbors to believe that a black family could afford to live in the houses they live in let alone a black man making more than them. Roberta flaunted her social class and displayed her embarrassment of communicating with a black women in front of her friends.  The family was looked at as if they were bringing down the neighborhood and in return the community projected their fear towards them. Much like in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, after 9/11 Changez experienced the same projection fear of the community based on how he looked. Just as Changez became more bold in the heat of the moment, the family did the same.

Within the series Them, I think the creator wants the view to question the past traumas of African Americans and the beyond difficult transitions that are still today being made. Also, the series does have a sinister portion to it but I also believe that the creator wants the viewers to also question and distinguish the two evils that the family is dealing with, sprits and racism.

THEM' Premiere Recap: Season 1 Episode 1 of Amazon Terror Series | TVLine

Cavon’s Text Review on Grown-ish

Chronicling Grown-ish

One of my favorite shows that I discovered during my own freshman year of college was Grown-ish, starring Yara Shahidi. Grown-ish is actually a spin-off of the ABC sitcom Black-ish, which features an upper middle class African-American family, the Johnsons, tackle topics like of race, identity, social, and political issues while remaining intact with their own culture. In this show, Zoey Johnson heads to fictional California University ready for adulthood only to have some new realizations along the way. This show is so diverse in the characters identities, and there are so many differences between Zoey and her new friends she makes in college. Along with this, Zoey and here friends have a wide range of experiences tackling issues like racism, political polarity, homophobia, religious intolerance, and mental health issues, cultural appropriation, and violence.

To start with, Zoey is a Black girl from California who dreams of being a fashion designer. She comes from a wealthy family and has always lived a pretty comfortable life. She makes friends with Aaron, who is a Black guy with a passion for social justice and Black Lives Matter; Ana who is the daughter of devout Catholics and Cuban immigrants while also identifying as a Republican; Nomi, a Jewish American party girl from a wealthy family who is secretly bisexual; Jaz and Sky, twins from South Central LA who are scholar track stars studying Economics; Vivek, a first generation Guajarati Indian American boy whose parents are devout Hindus (while he lives a double life as a secret drug dealer at school and an excelling engineering student to his parents); and lastly, Luca, a free spirit stoner and fashion designer at the university. I loved when I discovered this show because of how diverse the cast was and their background stories. It was inspiring seeing such friendship and interaction in a series about people in college and experiencing life like myself.

This show is pretty innovative in the way it presents some of the issues it addresses. Its first season was full of episodes presenting many politically charged situations that featured someone struggling with something like identity or status. One episode that stands out is episode eleven called “Safe and Sound,” when the friends question who has the right to a safe space as Ana reveals that she is a republican and went to the space of the African-American student center. This episode deals directly with Othering and challenging who gets regarded as important enough to be heard and entitled to their own space. This episode portrays the intersectionality of unlikely identities, such as how Ana is Latina and Republican. Should Ana be entitled to a safe space just like how Aaron and his friends? They explore who has the right to speak in their circle and if Ana and people like her should be listened to. I thought this was a cool episode to present because of how much they get int the identities of the characters and their beliefs in times of disagreement.

Here’s a few articles/a video if you would like to learn more about the show:

https://deadline.com/2019/06/grown-ish-yara-shahidi-freeform-social-issues-atx-television-festival-1202629466/

https://zora.medium.com/grown-ish-tackles-college-pregnancy-and-i-finally-feel-seen-5de105c83171

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-NXroZhANc

Morayo Obayemi’s Text Review

If we’re going to get into it let’s talk about Billie Holiday. In February of 2021,  director Lee Daniels dropped a masterful movie, “The United States vs Billie Holiday”. In it, we follow the singer’s journey through her music career and her many encounters with the law— not because she was a trouble maker (not intentionally at least) but because she was Black. Her most famous and notorious piece, as we see in the movie, is her song titled “Strange Fruit” in which she details the horrors of lynching that occurred frequently in southern states. A song that she risked her career for, a song she dedicated her life to performing every chance she got. But, how does all this fit into the scheme of this class and everything we’ve learned this year? Well, the sole reason Ms. Holiday was not allowed to perform the song is that it made some white members of her audience uncomfortable— and it upset members of the klan who worked in high governmental offices. They tried what they could to silence Billie, even planting narcotics on her to jail her. We can not ignore the dynamics at work here. A Black woman in the south during a time where racial tensions are at their highest openly defying white mobs who had the power to silence her and get away with it. The dynamics of the one vs the other determines who speaks here and who is spoken for. The white authority interacted negatively with Black influence because they were not able to comfortably silence her to fit the narrative of otherness that they carefully crafted for all black folks and more specifically Black women. The biggest twist of the movie is all the Black men that were mobilized to work against Billie Holiday to silence her truth and discourage her from singing Strange fruit. The intersectional identity of being Black and a woman forced her so far into otherness that it was quite clear she was never meant to speak up about what mattered to her. The question is the same as it has always been: who gets to speak and who do we listen to? Which voice do we champion as the voice of truth and reason and who do we demonize? Do we sympathize with the victims of oppression or do we praise the oppressor? Do we still consider women to be a category of otherness as a subconscious bias? What about Black women? There are things to ponder.

Text Review Assignment

For this text review assignment, I chose to review the film “Cool Runnings” (1993). This film is related to a true story about the first Jamaican bobsled team that made it to the olympics. The film starts out by covering the challenges that the team faced when starting up the first ever bobsled team the country of Jamaica had seen. This start up was not easy as in the film it starts by showing how the team was recruited and how people attended the live sessions explaining what it’s all about then as interest lessened they started simply asking people if they were interested to be apart of the team. What could be easily recognized from each interaction was the sense of identity that they were too used to the island climate and too acclimated to try out a winter sport to see if they would even be good at it despite them already hosting dirt pushcart races in their communities. They Soon they found a team and convinced a coach that was a former bobsledding olympian that seemed to have retired out on the island of Jamaica to coach the team. Soon they were seen practicing day in and day out trying to work for a chance to be seen and supported by people in the community. After a while they even went to there Olympic sporting office to try to get funded so they could have a ticket to the olympics and they were laughed at. This outcome after all of their work and dedication that has been put in to starting up the first bobsled team in Jamaica reflects the identity that the whole island had regarding winter sports. From this point on their journey of starting an Olympic bobsled team stemmed and started with fundraising/hustling so they could get that chance to be on that stage. This is where I noticed the challenge of identity meeting sports in their culture and injustice became noticeable when their Olympic office only reason for not funding their olympic run was that they have never seen a bobsled race in their life. The authors want the audience to mainly takeaway the struggles that countries like Jamaica go through when it comes to being not only present in the sports world but present in a sports world that their country may not be specifically interested in causing identity and power to be effectors.

Isabella Marino- Text Review: Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a movie directed by Frank Darabont in 1994. In this film, Andy Dufrense is wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover, and sentenced to two life terms in Shawshank State Penitentiary. During his time at Shawshank, Andy helps tutor his fellow prisoners and aid them in getting their GEDs. He also uses his intelligence to conjure up an embezzling scheme with the warden of the prison. His time in prison proves to be a tough one, too, as he is placed in solitary confinement for about a month for disrespecting the warden after the warden betrayed him. He was also raped by another prisoner for appearing “too weak.”

Andy’s experiences and observations during his time in the prison system examine the severe injustices that he and other prisoners endure from people of power, as their identity as prisoners puts them at an inferior position. The warden abuses his power to put Andy in solitary confinement because Andy retaliates when the warden dismisses his knowledge and evidence of innocence in his case. The warden even goes as far to kill another prisoner who tries to help Andy in his case. This overt abuse of power is a direct result of the stripping away of basic human rights that prisoners experience every day, and the unchecked and excessive power that prison guards are given.

Through this film, it is evident that these guards and others who hold positions of power in the criminal reform system do not care about the safety or lives of the people within the prison system. Brooks, a 73 year old man, finally gets out of prison after being incarcerated for his whole life. Brooks is in a constant state of fear and immensely struggles to adjust to life outside of prison. He receives little to no help from anyone, including his parole officer. There aren’t a lot of resources out there for him to facilitate an easy adjustment. Brooks ends up killing himself because of how tragic and depressing his life is as a “free” man. This is another injustice that arises in this movie, as the assimilation of ex-prisoners back into society is nearly impossible. It is also extremely difficult for some inmates to stay safe within prison, as shown through the assault that Andy endures during his sentence. The prison guards didn’t do anything to stop this assault, and a very minimal punishment was given to Andy’s attacker.

I think that the writer/director of this film wanted to raise serious questions about the injustices that exist within the criminal justice system. Prison guards and wardens are given an immense amount of power, and there is no system put in place where they can be evaluated or punished based on their actions against prisoners. The identity that prisoners receive is unfair, and their overall safety and quality of life, even after serving their sentence, is severely harmed.

Text Review Assignment

The show Naruto is about a boy named Naruto living in a ninja world made up of different clans that each have their own powers and mannerisms. This ninja world is based around chakra which is life energy that they use for different jutsus. The chakra originally comes from tailed beasts which there are ten of, and they are made up of pure chakra. When Naruto was born, his father sealed the nine tailed beast inside of Naruto killing both him and Naruto’s mom. Because of this, Naruto was seen as a threat, because the nine tails could come out at any time and go on a rampage. I think that the first season is a good display of injustice and finding identity because it shows Naruto trying his best to get noticed when everyone shuns him and wants him to go away. Naruto is a Jinchuriki which means he has a tailed beast sealed inside of him and there are eight other Jinchurikis in the ninja world. They are all discriminated against to the point where parents tell their kids to stay away from them and they grow up miserably. In the first season, Naruto is in the ninja academy and he strives to be the leader of the village. Everyone tells him that he can never achieve his goal and that he is not good enough, but Naruto refuses to give up and dedicates to working harder than everyone else. Naruto is seen by everyone in the village as the Other because he is different from them and he scares them. On the other hand, Naruto sees himself as the One and everyone else as the Other because they do not see the world the way that he does and do not work as hard as he does. Throughout the show, Naruto keeps working harder than everyone else and people begin to notice and respect him. Naruto finds out a lot about himself and begins to merge with the rest of the village into the One and not the Other.

personal intercultural experience

I have met numerous people in my life from different cultures and backgrounds. When I first moved to ohio state I noticed many different types of people and cultures and what they depicted as their social norms. I play baseball here and a lot of my teammates come from many different backgrounds and how some of them have different views on politics, life, etc. I had two specific teammates that were from inner cities in Atlanta and Chicago. They would come here and be shocked at how easier life is in the suburban life. They did not come from the easiest life and I really realized how different of lives we live even though we live in the same country. While many areas are different in styles of life I think most cultures and areas have many similarities but this was not the case with these individuals. We would blatantly chat about our lives back home and It made me think about how different of a person I would turn out if I did not have such a good foundation in life from my family. These two individuals had it way harder than me growing up from the stories they would tell me and I think that is the injustice. Based on their appearance they would get profiled and looked at differently and they felt very strong about the social injustice going on in our country. This I fully understand and it was very interesting learning about their way of life and how I thought everyone lived similar to me. learning all of this made me understand how important it is to be aware of these types of things and to try and improve the overall way of life in these areas. Not just for them but for all the people living in those areas. All in all i think this a great example of intercultural injustice and how certain cultures have it significantly worse than others.

ALEX PARRELLA TEXT REVIEW ASSIGNMENT

For this assignment, i recently watched the documentary blackfish. The documentary is about the treatment of orca whales in the aquamarine/amusement park “SeaWorld”. The documentary explores how the whales are treated extremely poorly and how the tanks they are kept in are extremely dangerous for their health and for their mental beings. The documentary also explores how when the mental health of orca whales decline and when they are hungry and starved they can turn aggressive and wont comply to the sea-worlds training they do for them to get them show ready. Throughout it, they show the stories of how sea-world trainers have been killed by some of these Orca whales because of the dangerous environment they are kept in. Before seeing this documentary, i never would have thought that the whales kept in sea world for our entertainment would be treated so good and would be feed so much. But in reality, i was completely wrong and they are treated so much different then i expected and i think its extremely sad for these massive mammals kept in captivity. I think we can relate this to the TedTalk we watched earlier in the semester about seeing the whole story pf something rather than just judge it off the first thing you see. When you walk into a SeaWorld you see these massive whales that look so happy and are doing all these tricks for us to entertain us. But the reality of the situation is, that these whales are held in captivity and are not happy. They don’t live nearly as long as they would in the wild and their health is a-lot more poor than the ones in the wild. You would never assume this if you didn’t watch this documentary. This documentary created a buzz years ago that actually started a campaign against SeaWorld that called the action to stop breeding these Orcas.

Junior Jah Text Review

The film “Fruitvale Station” (2013)  is based on the real-life events of Oscar Grant, a young man who was killed in 2009 by the BART police in the Fruitvale District station in Oakland, California. The film opens with Oscar Grant and his friends being detained by the BART police. During the film, Grant is struggling to make ends meet granted he just got out of jail. He considers dealing drugs but does not go through with the decision for the sake of his family. Fast forward to New Year’s Eve, Oscar and his friends take the train home. On the train, an old customer of a store Oscar used to work at recognizes him and yells his name. This leads to a former inmate recognizing Oscar as well and that causes a fight. When the BART Police arrive, they immediately attempt arrests against Oscar and his friends, while the inmate who caused the fight is able to get away. That inmate was a white man. After a while, Oscar is shot in the back by the police. He is then taken to the hospital but later dies.  The murder of Oscar Grant leads to a series of protests across the city.  The way Oscar and his friends were treated places them as the “other” in my eyes. There was a fight that broke out and instead of the police trying to deescalate the situation, they immediately assume it was Oscar and his friends. This right here is a perfect and horrifying example of what it feels like to be a POC in this country.

Ben Krick’s Text Review: Ender’s Game

My text review is on Ender’s Game, a science fiction novel written by Orson Scott Card published in 1985. The novel takes place in the future where humanity prepares their defenses against an alien race called the “buggers”. The story follows Ender, a young prodigy who is trained to one day fight against these aliens to win for humankind. As the story progresses, you can see how the buggers are cemented as the enemy. Growing up, Ender would play games like “Bugger vs Astronaut” where he would put on a bugger mask and his older brother would beat him up as the “astronaut”. Ender throughout is an outcast, who overcomes multiple bullies both at home, and in space training. Those around him view him enviously, and as a result are malicious and violent towards him. Ender throughout the story shows compassion towards others, only fighting against bullies when he has to, the opposite of his brother. This is what makes him desirable in the eyes of command, who promote him and pick him to be the one to fight back against the impending invasion. Ender is shown to be emotional, and feel things and this is what makes him human. In the end, Ender defeats the buggers with the destruction of their home planet while believing it to be only a game, and after realizes that the buggers felt sorry too, for fighting humans and wish they hadn’t. The buggers in the end, were maybe not so different from the humans after all and it was the lack of empathy from either side, human or alien that led to this conflict. Differences do not always equal enemy and that’s something that you can see reflected in our learnings about multiple cultures and throughout history as well. Empathy is what makes us human, and without it we turn into monsters. A clashing between races, or cultures can be resolved in a more peaceful way when we act empathetically, or as humans. Unnecessary conflict comes from fear, and lack of compassion.