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Glory Road is a movie about how an underdog overcame the best college basketball team in the nation. Prior to the 1965-66 NCAA basketball season, Texas Western’s head coach, Don Haskins, recruited a team with majority black players. This team went on to finish with a record of 23-1 before entering the 1966 NCAA tournament. Texas Western then beat the top ranked, all-white Kentucky Wildcats in one of the most surprising and inspirational upsets in tournament history.

This movie can be viewed from two angles, a basketball story, and/or institutional racism. In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was in full stride as America pushed for change. However, there were still unbelievable laws and racism that targeted minorities. In the film, there were many accounts of racism including Don Haskins receiving death threats, a Texas Western player beat, and vandalism of their locker room. There were clear intentions in all of these incidents, but the players showed true determination on the court.

Before each season, coaches were usually just recruiting white kids as it was frowned upon to let a black player play for their school. This gave black players with a similar skill set almost no chance to ever get to play at the collegiate level.

The Civil Rights movement which featured one of the most significant advancements and change in United States history did not happen too long ago. There are still millions of Americans alive today that experienced and remember those events. It took decades of change to get to where we are today.

In this class, we read Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail which detailed his viewpoint of the Civil Rights’ events. This letter was really important because we were able to see both sides to the argument. We also wrote and analyzed multiple examples of systemic injustice. The film “Glory Road” showcased another example of systemic injustice. Admiringly, the players were able to overcome this and win a national championship.

Fight Club is an amazing fictional film about an unnamed narrator meeting a bold adrenaline junky that goes by Tyler Durden. Throughout the film, Tyler Durden decides to work with the narrator to form a club called Fight Club which would consist of men who agree to fight each other until one of them taps out. Throughout the film, it starts to shine a light on the narrator’s life and how it was flawed before Tyler Durden came along, specifically the rat race mentality of going to work, pushing papers around, sitting at a cubicle, only to repeat this process the next day and so on. It also has subtle messages within the film about corporatism, and whether people truly have an identity in society. For example, after the narrator got his new apartment, he considered himself an “Ikea guy” since most of the furnishings he bought were exclusively from Ikea. After his apartment exploded, Tyler Durden mentions his Ikea guy label by saying “You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years, you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” This quote addresses how people can get carried away with buying items to the point of being attached to the item as if it is a part of their personality. Tyler’s goal with fight club is to go against the idea of having material possessions own you by recruiting people through a process in which, everyone in the group has no identity at all, being put on a level playing field. Regardless of race, ethnic background, age, etc. One assumption that can be made based on the group members of fight club and what they stand for could be that most members are those who are in a lower economic class, part of the rat race, living paycheck to paycheck, and in Tyler Durden’s eyes, slaves to the elites. By forming the group, it gives the unnamed members a glimmer of hope that they will make names for themselves with the actions they take rather than the material they own. One example of this is when Tyler threatens an individual responsible for launching an investigation to try and stop fight club’s project called project mayhem which had an end goal of terrorizing buildings owned by big corporations such as credit card companies. “The people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. Do not f**k with us.” -Tyler Durden (1:34:00-1:34:55). The Threat in this scene signifies how people of higher rank and class tend to underestimate the power of the “little guy” that is responsible for making food, driving the ambulance, connecting calls, and guarding people of interest when they are most vulnerable to an attack. My takeaways from this movie are that your identity should consist of what you have accomplished as an individual, not the items that you possess, and that people tend to underestimate the power they truly have in society against the corporate elites.

This particular novel/movie thug (the hate you give) was very eye opening and realistic piece especially compared to today’s society, that’s why I’ve selected it. The author killed two birds with one stone and what i mean by that is i believe his purpose was solely to raise awareness on police brutality while addressing the issue at hand. What’s the issue? is it being a brown melanated individual in america.. or is it simply uneducated, untrained, possibly racist individuals hiding behind a badge number and a lethal weapon?
This brings me to examining power/injustice and what that looks like in this novel. According to the script it seems as if police department and media hold way to much power that they can chew. For example, when Khalil got shot by police at a traffic stop for holding a hair brush that officer was placed on administrative leave which means payed leave, then further down the road was let off with zero consequences. Yet the mind blowing part about this whole incident was he got pulled over for so called “failing to put his blinkers on for a lane switch”, if that was the case why was a gun involved for something so small that ended up paying his life for the price. The image blow that has the family gathered around the table is representing the talk the parents had to have with them about how police might be a threat to their lives and what to do in the situation, as you seen the children are quite young and it’s a sad visual that they have to look over their shoulder and can’t even enjoying being a kid due to the fact their life is at risk.

Yes, this is just a movie and book to some of you but to some brown skin people this is a reality! Unfortunately a lifestyle just having to always look over your shoulder, being racially profiled, limited opportunities or seen as a threat even though brown people don’t have a history violence in the past yet the european americans do with slavery and colonization. sure it’s safe to say all cops aren’t bad, but we can’t end it there we need to weed out the bad apples and enforce better education and training because that small fix could save a life.

The movie Life of Pi dives into the story of Pi Patel, and Indian man who grew up in South India and later, through a crazy story, found his way to the United States. While traveling, his ship carrying zoo animals had sunk, and Pi found himself stuck on a life boat with a zebra and a tiger. The story surrounds his journey on the boat finding his way home. The part of the story I will be diving into however is the beginning, his cultural upbringing. The movie is depicted as an older Pi reflects on his past for a prospective biography writer, which gives Pi a chance to explain how his upbringing had effected how he viewed this adventure both through his culture and religions. Pi had a traditional Indian family structure, growing up working with his father and helping his mother around the home. Pi grows up with great respect and affection towards his brother, Ravi, as well which he explained plays out in the way he treated the animals on the boat with him with a similar type of love. Pi however sometimes had a problem with the way his father had treated the animals he worked with, which was occasionally in a more violent sense, and that aspect of the job was always a struggle for him, which explains the way he would not act violently towards the animals on the boa. Nutritionally, Pi grew up practicing three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. This different style of religion sometimes had him an outsider amongst people in India, yet it had also led to a more rooted life and virtues. Moving forward in the movie, it is at times hard to watch the trauma that Pi goes through, and for me personally, watching the aggression of the tiger towards the zebra who in a sense represents Pi, was not pleasant. Knowing that the movie is based on a true story also just keeps the anticipation high throughout the film. Pi goes through many struggles throughout his early life as well as his adventure on the boat, and he discovers a strong identity within himself and who he is, as well as realizing a new sense of self and appreciation for life. I highly recommend this movie if you have not seen it!

“Dying to Survive” is a movie that mainly based on the Chinese society in 2004.  At that time, there were a large number of leukemia patients who could not afford the expensive German imported cancer drugs to help them treat. The main character, Lu Yong, smuggled a large amount of generic drugs from India and sold them to leukemia patients at a very low price.

In this movie, I think there are four concepts we learned this semester to help us better understand.

The first one is about the Lu Yong. After he observed that a large number of leukemia patients had no money to buy cancer drugs, he bravely chose to go to India to buy generic drugs and sell a leukemia patient to help them treat them at a very low price. And in the movie he gave these leukemia patients confidence and strength. I think Lu Yong represents great leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and Lewis. Because Lu Yong not only discovered the problem, but at the same time he bravely stood up to help these leukemia patients. Also, he was the first to speak out for leukemia patients who could not afford the drugs.

Second, leukemia patients were “Othering” in Chinese society. They were discriminated against and disrespected by others just because of leukemia. In the movie, they are not allowed to take off their masks in public, and people think that leukemia is an unlucky disease. Although they received discrimination, they chose to remain silent, which led to more discrimination and disrespect.

The third is the ordinary people in Chinese society. They fell into the trap of “single story” and formed discrimination against leukemia patients. At that time, Chinese society did not popularize knowledge about leukemia, and people did not understand how leukemia was transmitted. Therefore, people are very one-sided believe that as long as they stay in the same area with leukemia patients or talk to leukemia patients, they will be infected. Because of the “single story”, they formed a prejudice against leukemia patients.

The fourth is about the police, doctors, and relevant government officials who knew that a large number of leukemia patients could not afford to import genuine cancer drugs. What they show behind is the “moderate white” mentioned by Dr. Martin Luther King and Lewis. They know that there are a large number of leukemia patients cannot pay for the drugs, but they choose to ignore and not to help leukemia patients.

At the end of the movie, the Chinese government began to popularize knowledge about leukemia to reduce discrimination, and began to produce cheap cancer drugs and included leukemia in medical insurance. I think “Dying to Survive” symbolizes people like Lu Yong who bravely contributed to “Othering”. The pain and sacrifice of a small number of people could brought happiness to more people in the future.

Picture citation：

http://www.yngangtie.com/yishu/3183.html

https://www.ifanr.com/1062232

http://www.txlunwenw.com/shuoshilunwen/201810239691.html

For my Text Review Assignment, I read Eli Saslow’s Rising Out of Hatred, Derek Black goes from white nationalist son of former KKK Grand Wizard and the creator of Stormfront, Don Black, one of the largest white nationalist websites in America, to an antiracist political figure who defies his family and history to stand up for what he believes in. Simple enough, his transition from Neo-Nazi to who he is know came from something as small as Friday night Shabbat dinner. The book chronicles Derek’s college adventures and touches on the dinners he attended with his Jewish counterparts in college only shortly, but to me this had an immense impact. Derek allowed people he disagreed with to see him, and more importantly, he allowed them to change him. These dinners represented so much more than just eating or a friday night college hangout. Shabbat dinner was a communal gathering where Derek was not held to a better standard for being a white man, something Derek had grown up with, and preached most of his life. It seems ironic that of all people that began Derek’s journey it happened to be from a culture he was taught to be against. This kindness offered through Shabbat dinner was something so minimal yet became something powerful enough to change the entire narrative of one man and dismantle his hateful views on different cultures and people. This book focuses on how the father of Derek is initially the “one”, and Derek is the “other” to vise versa. Derek defies the “one” and does not be what he is expected to be. Rising Out of Hatred focuses on a question asking if it is justifiable that platforms like Stormfront exist where uncensored extremist ideas and opinions foster hatred and potential violence? This book inspires those in similar situations to do what they believe is right, regardless of what is occurring around them.

This fiction story is about a Leadership Consultant named Steve and an unexpected stranger giving him leadership advice. Steve was at the beach one day when he met a stereotypical surfer named Edg. Steve did not expect to learn anything from this surfer, but Edg started to talk about the acronym LEAP. Over the course of several days, Edg taught Steve the acronym LEAP (Love, Energy, Audacity, and Proof), and the meaning behind each word.

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Leap-Personal-Extreme-Leadership/dp/0989300218

Although this book is primarily about the LEAP mindset, the story includes themes of identity. Steve loves his job as a Leadership Consultant, but he has been losing his passion and motivation for it over time. Edg is the opposite of Steve because he is content and sure with his life choices.

From the beginning of the story, the audience knows that Steve is losing his identity. Edg is the first one to start talking to Steve, and Edg starts to talk about the LEAP mindset. Steve becomes interested in what this “beach bum” surfer has to say about leadership. As Edg is teaching Steve about LEAP, Steve starts to realize that Edg has a solid identity of himself. Each day they talk, Steve sees more and more of how confident Edg is in himself, despite looking like someone who does not have their life together.

Not only does Steve recognize Edg and his strong identity, but he also regains his own identity and strengthens it. Through Edg and the leadership mindset he is teaching, Steve begins to find motivation and passion for his job again. Steve is not only implementing the mindset that Edg taught him, but he his excited and motivated to help and teach others to take the radical LEAP.

Through this story of mindset and unlikely friends, the author is showing the audience how people can realize or strengthen their own identity by building relationships with people, helping people, and creating a more positive way to think.