A few years ago, I sat down to watch the movie that I had heard was pretty good. Two hours and thirteen minutes later, I was sobbing my eyes out texting my friends that they needed to stop what they were doing and watch this movie. This movie was called The Hate U Give and it’s one of those films this is absolutely gut wrenching, powerful, and that leaves you speechless. The film is actually based on the novel by Angie Thomas, but I broke my cardinal rule and watched the film before reading the novel. The story follows Starr Carter, a teenage black girl who attends an all-white preparatory school. Starr is constantly switching her persona depending on which environment she’s in. Soon into the story, her childhood best friend Khalil is murdered in a traffic stop by a police officer while Starr is in the passenger’s seat. After this traumatizing experience, Starr observes how both communities react and faces challenges with her identity and those she considers friends. Starr talks about having two identities based on who she’s around and the stigmatization she faces from both groups. She feels like the “other” in both environments because at her prep school she’s “Williamson Starr” who is one of the only black students and, in her neighborhood, she faces criticism and jokes about not being truly from the hood. I attached a clip below and from 00:05:58- 00:07:00 where Starr talks about her “Williamson Starr” identity. The systemic injustices of police brutality and racism also play key roles in this story while the trial for the police officer who murdered Khalil is taking place. Starr faces conflict with friends from her school who fail to understand her perspective. Starr’s altercation with her friend Hailey reminds me of Toni Morrison’s Recitatif and the relationship between Roberta and Twyla. In both relationships, the girls start off as great friends, but when issues of injustice and racism arise, a feud begins because opposite sides are taken. I think Angie Thomas wants readers of all races and identities to hear her story because everyone can learn something. Those from the African American community can learn to appreciate and express their true identities. Non-Black communities can also learn from this story about how to support Black friends and how to be an ally. Through her characters, Ms. Thomas inspires the conversation about identity and through the trial and riots that follow Khalil’s death, she also sheds light on many injustices faced by the Black community. This is a story of Starr regaining the power of self and through her growth, everyone who reads or watches The Hate U Give can learn a valuable lesson.
Hello guys, my name is about Abby and I am going to be discussing school dress codes! So now, if you guys are like me, I’m sure just saying those words leaves a bitter taste in your mouth because many of us have been victims of the sexist rules of dressing in high school, middle school, and some, unfortunately even in elementary school. So just for fun, I decided to pull up my own school districts school dress code in the twenty or- in the 2018-2019 parent/student handbook, which was from my senior year of high school and I read through it and I just wanted to share a few things I found to be quite interesting. So, to start, they prefaced the section by saying, “The Board will not interfere with the right of students and their parents to make decisions regarding their appearance, except when their choices interfere with the educational program of the schools.” Which, that sounds expectable, but then I kept reading and saw what they considered to be “unacceptable.” So, in their long list of inappropriate items, I found: “Halters, midriff tops, crop tops, spaghetti strap tops, open mesh garments, garments with open sides which expose skin or undergarments, and muscle tops” So, let’s just pause for a moment because some of these I can see where they could possibly be distracting, like open mesh garments because, maybe, we don’t need to see- maybe we don’t need to be wearing all of our Friday and Saturday night attire to class. But items like halters, crop tops, and spaghetti strap tops are clearly targeting a certain 50%, give or take, of the students. So, my research didn’t end here. I actually went back on my school district’s website and found the dress code in the handbook from the year before, 2017 to 2018, and they had a section of questions students should “consider” when getting ready for school. I actually laughed when I read few of these because they are absolutely ridiculous, but my two favorites were: “Would I interview for a job in this outfit?” and “Am I dressed appropriately for the weather?” Yeah, so who in the world goes to school every day dressed like they would for a job interview? I mean that is absolutely ridiculous, talk about “distracting attire in the classroom,” who in the world would be comfortable and able to focus with everyone dressed like they’re trying to beat you out for a job. And the question regarding the weather is actually my favorite because during this time, my like- during this particular school year, my school was doing renovations, so there was no air conditioning and at one point, one of my classrooms was literally 88 degrees. Yet, if I had tried to show up in a spaghetti strap top, which in my opinion would have actually been appropriate for the weather, I would have been sent home. Which actually did happen to me in the second grade. Yes, I did say the second grade, and yes, I was an eight-year-old child. I showed up to school in my new High School Musical tank top thinking I was the literal queen of fashion, just to be sent to the office after thirty minutes in the building and told my tank top was inappropriate because my shoulders were exposed and that was distracting. I mean literally what is that? What is so sexy about an eight-year old’s shoulders? Let me repeat that, an eight-year-old. No one even questioned that, maybe, it wasn’t my clothing at fault in this situation, but instead the ideals society has ingrained in our brains. My favorite dress code story, though, was in seventh grade when I was walking to the bus after school wearing a t-shirt and those Nike shorts that literally every girl under the sun owned back in 2013. Yes, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about and I’m sure you also owned a pair. But, anyways I walked out of the building and I saw my assistant principle who was so notorious for dress coding people and I did my best to avoid her, but, unfortunately, she did see me and called me over and told me to put my hands at my side. I can almost feel the eyerolls that just caused because I know so many of you listening right now hated the fingertip policy just as much as I did. So, anyways, I know you guys can’t see me right now, but I have incredibly long arms, um, my wingspan in actually 2 inches longer than my height, so there was no way I was getting out of this. She then proceeded to tell me that my Nike shorts, yes, let me repeat that, Nike running shorts, were incredibly inappropriate and I was not permitted to wear those to school again. Yeah, so, let’s talk a little bit about the damaging effects sexualizing the female body can cause. So, I did a bit of investigation and I read some articles about other girl’s experiences with dress code “violations,” and let me let you there were so many articles, I just had to pick a few because I started to get information overload. So, one article that really stuck out to me was an article written in The New York Times by Kayley Krischer and it’s titled “Is Your Body Appropriate to Wear to School?” Yep, let that just sink in for a moment. So, the article focuses on a seventeen-year-old girl named Lizzy Martinez and basically, she had a sunburn and wearing a bra was really painful on her skin, so she decided instead to wear an oversized, dark grey shirt with no bra underneath for school. And I’m choosing to tell you what she wore because even she was conscious of the restrictions imposed on her body in school and did actually make a conscious effort not to draw attention to herself. You can probably see where this is going, she was dress coded and forced to put on a top, that was not her own, and when the administration decide that that wasn’t enough, they made her put adhesive bandages over her nipples. I think her mom said it best when she was interviewed at a later time about the situation and said, “‘the fact is that she wore a long sleeve T-shirt that was not see-through. It wasn’t even flattering,’ ‘So to say she was trying to be a distraction is absolutely absurd.’” One thing that pretty much every story I read was about was sexualizing female stud- was schools’ sexualizing female students’ clothing that isn’t even meant to be “sexy” and for these administrators to continue this trend is incredibly dangerous and damaging. During my research I stumbled across an article on the National Education Association website that’s written by Kira Barrett. The article is titled “When School Dress Codes Discriminate.” In her writing, Barrett talks about Shauna Pomerantz, a girlhood expert working at Brock University, who brings up an incredibly important point: that dress coding is essentially a form of victim-blam- victim-blaming, and the more you think about it, the more you begin to agree it and you realize that this idea actually makes a ton of sense. In an article written by Laura Bates in Time, titled “How School Dress Codes Shame Girls and Perpetuates Rape Culture,” she brings up the point about how girls are conti- continuously told that if they- that they need to cover up because they’re distracting boys or making male teachers “uncomfortable.” I personally get so incredibly frustrated when this “excuse” is used because they are missing the entire point. Instead of teaching boys to respect female bodies, they’re teaching them that if females choose to show skin, then “she’s asking for it,” which further justifies their actions and keeps them from being held accountable. It’s basically like saying that if a gas station sells candy bars and I steal one because I want it, tha- that the gas station is actually asking for me to steal the candy bar because they chose to sell it. The only difference between these two scenarios is that in the latter one, the person at fault is actually held accountable. It’s no wonder that one in five women are sexually assaulted during their time in college. The school dress code becomes ingrained in peoples mind and soon enough people are saying things like “oh well her top showed a lot of cleavage” to justify that fact that a woman is brutally raped and then murdered. Clothing choice should never, ever, be a justification for violence against women. It is time for accountability and to stop the objectification of the female body. Laura Bates made such an important point in her Time article when saying, “I can’t help feeling there is a powerful irony in accusing a girl of being ‘provocative’ – in projecting that societal assumption onto her adolescent body – before she is even old enough to have learned how to correctly spell the word.” Instead of preaching body positivity and self-worth in classrooms, our first exposure in education teaches young girls to associate their own skin with embarrassment and shame. Without action, this vicious cycle of female oppression will continue and I. for one, do not want to get a phone call in twenty years from my future child’s school telling me to bring her a new pair of running shorts because hers are distracting to her male peers.
Barrett, Kira. “When School Dress Codes Discriminate.” NEA, 24 July 2018, www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/when-school-dress-codes-discriminate.
Bates, Laura, and Everyday Sexism. “Everyday Sexism Project: Dress Codes and Rape Culture.” Time, Time, 22 May 2015, time.com/3892965/everydaysexism-school-dress-codes-rape-culture/.
Krischer, Hayley. “Is Your Body Appropriate to Wear to School?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/style/student-bra-nipples-school.html.
This past year I have worked as an in-home healthcare aide for a few adults who have development disabilities. I help cook their meals, provide transportation, and assist with other miscellaneous needs. The more I have taken them out into public, the more I have noticed the ways people choose to interact with them. I have begun categorizing people into four groups depending on how they address my clients’ presence: those who give them dirty looks, those who completely ignore their presence, those who communicate with them as if they’re two years old, and those who treat them as actual human beings. I fully recognize that they may lack certain social skills and need extra time to respond, but they are still intelligent, thoughtful people. One of my clients teaches me a new historical fact every time we’re together and my other client has learned to trick his staff into giving him caffeinated coffee, even though he’s strictly limited to decaf. Society has been stigmatized to treat people with disabilities as if they’re broken, but they are not. They have feelings, can understand when they’re being made fun of, and know their self-worth. When I see people treating members of the disabled community negatively, I educate them to help them better interact with people like my clients. The system has failed to teach people ways to constructively help and interact with them, and instead has silenced and alienated my clients.
It is too frequent that we see the isolation of those with a disability because of a stigma. In Toni Morrison’s Recitatif, we heard Roberta and Twyla bully Maggie, one of the women who worked in the kitchen who had “legs like parentheses” (Morrison 2), signifying she possibly had a physical disability, and an intellectual disability because they mentioned she never spoke. They screamed things like, “Dummy! Dummy!” (Morrison 3) and “Bow legs! Bow legs!” (Morrison 3) at her. I have attached an article with great advice on how to best communicate with people with disabilities of any kind:
This article does a fantastic job of providing great communication techniques, such as talking in a normal toned voice and asking if they need assistance, instead assuming they do. Something I really want to highlight in the list is to refer to them as “someone with a disability,” not “a disabled person.” This might seem like a slight grammatical change, but keeping their disability separate from them as a person is empowering. After all, whatever their disability, it’s not who they are, it’s simply one of many characteristics making up who they are. I found a great article that further educates how to talk about people with disabilities:
This article focuses on the importance of wording that is chosen when referring to those with disabilities and offers a wonderful chart highlighting language that’s acceptable as well as language to avoid. People with developmental disabilities deserve better and one way for us all to do better is to educate ourselves.
Iran was never an official colony of the European powers, however, in 1908 a British company discovered Iran’s oil supply, and this sparked Iran’s communication with the industrialized world (“Iranian Revolution Facts, History, Chronology, Outcome.”). The Shah, who is Iran’s leader, agreed to give the British the ability to search and sell the oil. In 1921, there was a coup d’état that was done by the army general, Reza Shah (“Iranian Revolution Facts, History, Chronology, Outcome.”). He was unpopular with many members of Iran’s community because he began to westernize the country, which went against many religious and societal beliefs. In 1963 the new Shah, who was the son of Reza Shah, began the White Revolution (“Iran Profile – Timeline”). This plan was meant to be for “land reform and social and economic modernization” (“Iran Profile – Timeline”) but, was met with much criticism from clergy members and one in particular, Ayatollah Khomeini. He spoke out strongly against him and many people agreed with Ayatollah Khomeini, but he was exiled in 1964 for speaking out (Afary). The Shah used the SAVAK, his secret police, in the late 1960’s to continue his authoritarian rule and to keep opposition movements at bay (“Iran Profile – Timeline”). The oil boom in the 1070’s made the Shah very rich, but the regular people of Iran suffered from high inflation and were struggling to survive (Afary). In January of 1978, the spark for the revolution occurred when a Tehran-based newspaper, Ettela’at, published an article that criticized Khomeini (Afary). This caused many Iranian students and youth to begin protesting. The protests grew and the Shah decided he must take action, which was very brutal and left many injured or dead. Shi’a Islam has a tradition to hold memorials 40 days after someone has passed away, so after the 40 days the memorials were held, which then created a ripple effect of more protests and violence, which continued until the summer of 1978 (Afary). This was the beginning of the Islamic revolution, which later included events like the terrorist attack to a cinema and Black Friday, which will be discussed in Persepolis, along with many of the social effects of war and the regime.
