Author: giere.16

Text Review – Selena

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The 1997 film Selena is a biographical drama about Selena Quintanilla, a famous Mexican-American singer in the 1980’s. Her father, Abraham, was a former vocalist in a band called Los Dinos who faced racism and discrimination due to his Mexican decent. After the decline of the band, he noticed the vocal talent of his youngest daughter, Selena, and started a family band called Selena Y Los Dinos consisting of Selena and her older sister and brother. As Selena grew older and started recording albums, she became very popular and became know as the “Queen of Tejano” which is a style of Mexican music that incorporates different types of music such as western along with it. The films shows how she becomes the first female crossover Latin artist, but the end of the film reveals that she gets murdered at the age of 23 by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar. 

The film depicts many injustices that occur during Selena’s life, but I want look at the injustices that her father also had to deal with that gets brought up in the film but can be overlooked. A major point in the film that stuck out to me was about interesting identities when Selena’s father says to her, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!” Abraham understood that by being Mexican American he was seen as “Other” by Mexicans and by Americans and always had to prove himself by having to be Mexican enough to the Mexicans and American enough to the Americans. An example of injustice due to intersecting identities of being Mexican American and speaking Spanish and English is of when Abraham and his band were always told by society what they could and couldn’t play. For example, they were performing at a club and were called “queers” for singing English music instead of Spanish language Mexican music because they looked Mexican. Another example in the film is of a club owner refusing to pay the band after finding out they were Mexican American. They were also turned down for motel rooms and venues for being Mexican American in predominately white neighborhoods.

I think a take away by Abraham stating that “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans” is that we set ourselves up as the “One” over others with the same identity as us, such as using systems of power for Americans to marginalize other Americans or Mexicans to marginalize other Mexicans. I think this also shows that there is discrimination and marginalization in all levels of society and challenges us to think about what ways we see this in our own life. What can we do prevent ourselves as setting ourselves up as the “One” over others who do or don’t share intersecting identities as us? 

 

“Yo, is this intersectional?”

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https://osu.zoom.us/rec/share/LV31wCV-fRx0fT5MLkePhK-_grBNrsoL8rH9Z12b-TeF21J3Hrg0aUInVaGLG0Y3.1I534IrRq2lQERBK?startTime=1617679287000

https://osu.zoom.us/rec/sdownload/1gsVcvNb7P3FkibS-WOARtyL2q7erFR1Fjut5PQMhtfrWM32RwGMD8AqLyjcXrvzZWe91SdoHA-FcwBH.JLwMsXJjWkV7IDXj

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Right. Welcome to week one episode one of yo, is this intersectional?

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I'm Jess I'll be your host. And with me We have two guests over here we have Mira and Amber.

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Mira.

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And okay, so like I said this week, we're talking about intersection ality. If you don't know what that is. Just

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get out of here. We don't want you here yeah get out turn all right we're just we're just messing with you. You don't know what that means you're in the right place because we're going to tell you all about what intersection ality is.

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So, most of us have actually probably already experienced this. But just never really had the worst just read what it is. And so intersection ality is basically how each of us have multiple different identities that intersect, these identities determine

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our positions in society and the advantages and disadvantages we go through. And we each have multiple different identities. So for example, We all might have different religious beliefs, education, gender, well, nationality, ethnicity, and goes on and

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on to language high occupation, even age.

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So a good example of this is because of someone's intersecting identities, they might experience advantages based on, for example like education and wealth, but they can also experience oppression due to something such as like their age or religion or

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gender. And so I just want to take a second to focus on how we view these advantages and disadvantages, and how we use intersection ality to interpret other people's realities and even our own.

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So as you guys can see we have this photo and on the left side we have a woman, and basically a bikini wearing nothing else but sunglasses. And on the right hand side, we have another woman who's wearing a burka and like a face covering, and they both

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have completely different perspectives of each other.

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And I'll just read it off to you and the girl on the left hand is looking at your own right and she's like, everything is covered but her eyes. What a cruel male dominated culture.

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But the woman on the right says nothing is covered but her eyes. What a cruel male dominated culture. So I just wanted to get your guys's perspectives on this and how each of them view each other as having a restriction on their on their freedoms because

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they have different intersecting identities. Yeah.

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Yeah.

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This is definitely something in our culture where we tend to judge other people based on what we feel like is normal for our culture.

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So I've heard the term used ethnocentrism where it's pretty much like your, your ethnicity or your culture you think is the most right and is better than another culture and I feel like this is what's happening here to where they're looking at each other's

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cultures and they think their own cultures better because that's the only norm, they've experienced.

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What do you think Amber. Yeah.

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You can agree with that.

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living in like a totally different culture and knew how you would just.

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If you were just totally to be a different person or whatever, like, and how that would change you.

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Yeah, like like when you

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go on, like,

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like mission strip or simple like that you would end

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up being something like you're, you're a totally out of your element, and yeah, yeah and then you really, it, you make the choice to, like,

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really, it's either it's going to change you are you're just gonna be stubborn enough to like, I'm not being willing to accept what it could teach you.

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Yeah, yeah. Dang that was fire.

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That's pretty dope. I like how you said how you can really learn something from this because yes these are both females but you can see how they probably have different nationalities, you're going to religious beliefs, and we really use those things like

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marginalize each other, and interpret each other.

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And I think a good instance of systemic injustice that deals with intersecting identities is recently with the banning of the burka and just other Facebook groups in Sri Lanka.

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And this is said to be so they can have more national security because was believed that the burka was being seen as a sign of religious extreme ism.

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And I really love with the vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has to say about this.

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And he claims that no matter what someone's faith. Faith is they should have the right to wear face covering.

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And that's because the matter should be viewed in the context of whether or not a face covering is something they have the right to do instead of always being viewed and more of a religious context.

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And so I think this goes right along with like the intersecting identities of being female and Muslim.

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And it's kind of forces them to become what's known as other because they're being marginalized by their identities.

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And beyond that, even further marginalized because within this group is broken up to two smaller groups between those who support banning the burgers because they believe that have more freedom from that.

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Or another group who also believe they have more freedom by not wearing a burka is because they believe that they should at least have that right to do it if they want to.

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Yeah, that makes sense. It's like an issue of power.

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It's kind of like how you and me are both girls just but you ride your bike and I don't

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like man likes because I'm like, Why Why are you riding your bike when you could just drive.

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And why do you have your bike in the middle of the living room like. Run along. Like the systems of power. Yeah, how these intersecting identities, can cause us to have like different access to systems of power, for example, if, like our wealth can relate

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to our education and how much education we can receive nothing to bring under that like that or if you're Muslim or Jewish you might not be allowed into a Christian school so our faith can determine what education and therefore what other systems of power.

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We have access to. Yeah.

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Yeah, I mean I feel like I even saw this in a.

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It was this case like a, maybe a couple years ago, of this black boy who went to it was either a high school or college, but either way he had, he had braids and his hair, and they wouldn't let him graduate they wouldn't let him walk on stage, because

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of his grades, because that like didn't fit their school I mean it was, it was racism isn't it Yeah, sure, but it's it's a very similar thing of like they're banning the Burke other banning the braids.

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They have this norm that they want everybody else to assimilate to.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. So do you guys.

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I'm curious what your guys's thoughts are of, if you think the burka is a sign of religious extremism, and whether or not they should have the right to make that choice of whether or not they can wear it.

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Well, the thing is like, I, I've heard or have been like friends with people that like would be wearing a burka with people would be associated them with like being Muslim or having that like religious faith.

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In reality, they would just not have any association with it.

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So, so I think it's just more like the personal.

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Yeah, person's personal belief like would not necessarily be related with what they're wearing like their clothing.

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Yeah, and we easily interpret people and judge them based on their clothing, but we'll get more into that next week so that's all we have time for us, sir.

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Stay tuned.

Diary Of Systemic Injustice Showcase- Banning of the burka and closing of Muslim schools in Sri Lanka-Jessica Giere

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An instance of systemic injustice I read about is the banning of the burka and other face coverings in Sri Lanka in order to have more national security. Two years ago in April 2019, suicide bombers attacked Catholic churches and tourists hotels on Easter Sunday. This is because the burka was being seen as a sign of religious extremism. Sri Lanka’s public security minister, Sarath Weerasekara, signed an order that is waiting approval. The order will permanently ban the burka and face coverings in order to have more national security and stop these attacks, which are believed to be by the Islamic State militant group. 

Although Sarath Weerasekara wants the ban, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, Hilmi Ahmed, claims that no matter what someone’s faith is, they have the right to wear a face covering and the matter should be viewed in the context as whether or not wearing a face covering is something they have the right to do, instead of always only viewing it in a religious context. He stated that, “there would not be any objection from anyone to remove the face cover for identity purposes” if any officials needed them to do so.

 

 

The intersecting identities of being female and being Muslim forces them to become “Other” and affects how they view their identity. Even within this group of people, there is further marginalization based on whether or not they support banning burkas and head coverings or if they want to continue wearing it because they believe they have the right to wear it if they still want to. More specifically, the intersecting identities of being female, Muslim, and a child makes those with these intersecting identities Subaltern. Mr. Weerasekara stated that the government planned on banning over one thousand madrassa Islamic schools. 

https://www.lankaeducation.com/muslim-madrassa-schools-to-absorb-into-education-ministry-sri-lanka/

If this happens, these children will lack access to education which is a grave injustice. Mr. Ahmed stressed that the majority of Muslim schools are  registered with the government and therefore adhere to the government’s education policies. Only about five percent of Muslim schools do not adhere to the policies and he agrees that these schools should be closed, but the vast majority of the schools that do adhere to the government’s policies should not be closed simply for being Muslim schools. These children that attend these schools have no say in the matter and are spoken for on the terms of the government instead of on their own terms. The banning of burqas and closing madrassa schools both specifically affect Muslims who are already minorities in Sri Lanka, making up only 9% of the population of 22 million people. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56386426

https://apnews.com/article/cabinets-national-security-islamic-state-group-sri-lanka-eb23fb57fd43ba306c4716b87de026fe

Context Research Presentation- segregation in Birmingham and the reason behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter

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One of the readings for this week is “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. states “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King,1). He goes on to say that “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” (King,1). Birmingham, Alabama was wrecked with injustice more than anywhere else, making it the greatest threat to justice. A huge factor contributing to the segregation in Birmingham is the effect of zoning and city planning starting in 1920. In the early twentieth century zoning was used to protect valuable property by separating land. Zoning was strongly used in the organization of Birmingham and by the 1950’s this system of zoning turned into racial-zoning. For example, the interstate highways were used to help create racial boundaries and were even built through neighborhoods to create population loss. By the 1960’s this system made drastic segregation possible in Birmingham. This created a foundation for further injustice, allowing it to escalate more compared to other cities. 

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to his fellow clergy and all Americans while he was at Birmingham Jail even though he didn’t write letters to the public during the other times he was jailed. This is because while he was in Birmingham Jail he read a statement in the newspaper that was written by eight of the local white clergymen who described themselves as “moderates”. These clergymen described King as an “extremist”. They rejected his demonstrations and protests by claiming that they cause violence. This gave rise to King writing this letter because he wanted to refute this claim. He wanted to share the nature of his movement and its moral and philosophical basis. He wanted to reach as many people as he could with his views on freedom.

 

 

                                                           Works Cited 

 

“Civil Rights and City Planning.” The Most Segregated City in America”: City Planning and Civil Rights in Birmingham, 1920–1980, by Charles E. Connerly, University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 167–216. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrnnn.12. Accessed 30 Jan. 2021.

 

Connerly, Charles E. “From Racial Zoning to Community Empowerment: The Interstate Highway System and the African American Community in Birmingham, Alabama – Charles E. Connerly, 2002.” SAGE Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739456X02238441.

 

KING, JR MARTIN LUTHER. LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL. PENGUIN Books, 2018.

 

Rieder, Jonathan. Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation. Bloomsbury Press, 2013.`