The movie (and book) Hidden Figures came out in 2016 and is set in the early 1960’s follows the stories of three female African-American women working at NASA in the heart of the Space Race. The Space Race was the United States and the Soviet Union battling to make key discoveries about what was beyond our earth and sending people into space. The three women, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson are brilliant and powerful women who end up making key discoveries within the predominantly white, male workplace. These women never took no for an answer and were able to show that they deserved just as good treatment as any other employee. They ended up excelling more than the other people in their respective divisions and were finally recognized in the end of the film for their intelligence, hard work, and dedication.
In this movie, the power that is addressed is toward men being superior to woman as well as white people having power over people of color (specifically black people in this film). I think that this dynamic in the film showed that all people regardless of sex or gender can excel in the STEM field and they have just as much brilliance and stature. The One in this example was the white people who oppressed these strong women who were seen as the Other. The movie shows that these people can do anything and can accomplish so many amazing inventions and innovations when they get the opportunity to excel. The big picture here is that people need be accepting of all people to be able to accomplish the most. There is no place for discrimination in the workplace, especially concerning something so important as NASA.
I think that the author of the book and then the director of the film wanted to make the viewer question the importance of race and gender and realize that being smart is something that goes beyond both of those things. The movie is uplifting which shows that the viewer is supposed to feel empowered and strong. I think that while this movie is appealing to any demographic of viewer, the target audience I believe is younger girls who can look up to these powerful women and aspire to be like them and fight all barriers including sex and race. I think that it inspires conversation about identity, power, and injustice because while this is a historical movie depicting real events, it is also entertaining which is a very important aspect of media today that sparks conversation and sticks with people.
19:07:34 My name is Jackie Groeschen, I’m a marketing major in Fisher at Ohio State, and I took this class because I wanted to learn more about the world and the people in it, because I think
19:07:52 that everyone could always benefit for more information and getting more insight and a lot of different perspectives. Definitely, um, my name is Grace Rudzinski.
19:08:04 I’m a business finance major also in the Fisher school at Ohio State, and I took this class because I feel like especially right now and.
19:08:13 Over the summer there was a lot of riots with black lives matter I just feel like there’s so many important topics that arose in 2020 and 2021 that made me want to learn more and like you said get more information on all those topics so, yeah, I think
19:08:29 this class is a great way to like, learn more about those.
19:08:34 And yeah, yeah.
19:08:37 And this is our podcast, yo, is this racist. Today, we will be covering education and redlining environmental racism and also hate crimes. And we think that all of these definitely come together under the umbrella of injustice regarding race, and where
19:08:59 people are from.
19:09:01 So we’re really excited to get into it, for sure. So you wrote a really good systematic injustice.
19:09:08 Little writing about the school zone lines. Would you like to talk about that at all. Yeah, absolutely. So this was definitely the first like initially when I read about the project I knew that I wanted to talk about this, I think that I learned about
19:09:25 this when I was in high school, and some of my classes. And basically what it is is different public school systems, create their zones, based off of what school that area will be going to.
19:09:41 And they draw these quote on quote red lines that can exclude people or put different groups and neighborhoods into maybe a worse school districts, stuff like that.
19:09:54 It also goes into people getting mortgages for their houses.
19:09:59 And that isn’t always exactly fair. A lot of that plays into race, which I learned about a little bit but I came from a private school. So this was not prevalent in my background, but we learned about it which was super cool and I thought that it was
19:10:17 very mature of my teacher, to be able to talk about this in front of her classroom and her students, which was awesome. So, Did you have public schooling or private school.
19:10:41 finish out all my school and public school, and I came from a wealthier town. Yeah, I’m from Springboro, Ohio so I can’t quite understand what some of the kids, you know feel when they are from less wealthy backgrounds.
19:10:52 But I think that it’s so important that we look into it and realize how people may be feeling when you split, put a line in between, who can go here and who needs to go somewhere else.
19:11:04 For sure, but one quote that I found from an article said that at Lincoln Elementary School, 16% of the students come from low income families and over 80% are proficient in reading the school shares an attendance zone boundary with Manierre elementary
19:11:23 school where 99% of students are low income and only 11% are proficient in reading.
19:11:30 So it’s just crazy that, and the same neighborhood, they have such different levels of reading and it’s just, it’s unfair at the level of education that they can get where they come from.
19:11:44 Yeah I think so too. I think that just reading those statistics like, I realized how thankful and like how lucky I was to be able to go to a good school, and then be able to go home and have the resources to study and have a quiet environment and have
19:12:02 parents that were supporting me. So I think that that’s a big part of these huge gaps in the schooling is you know what the students are going home to, and then how the school is actually helping them.
19:12:16 So, you know, the schools they get funds for like after school care or summer camp, or even just like Homework Help knew what schools are getting funded more for sports and all that stuff, it all goes.
19:12:30 It’s really wild, how you know different like these different areas can be when they’re so so close, for sure.
19:12:42 Okay, all right. You want to segue over to our next topic. Yeah, for sure. Okay.
19:12:49 So I also found some research on the environmental racism which I never, that was one topic that I just I never really thought about because that one’s one that’s very new to me too.
19:13:02 Yeah, yeah, I feel like in, you know, you just think of like the environment. Oh, everyone has the same environment. Everyone lives on the same planet like, you know, it’s the same but what I found was that different like water supplies were, like, had
19:13:20 lead in them and Flint, Michigan. And so, that water that was contaminated very much went to the poor areas of Flint, Michigan, versus the more wealthy areas.
19:13:34 Yeah.
19:13:37 Yeah. No, that’s crazy to me because we’re all people you know and it’s like we all need a few things to survive like the bare minimum necessities would be like food, water, and I mean shelter but water so it’s like you can’t be giving certain people
19:13:55 water just because they’re poor you know we all need it, so like it’s literally something we need to survive. So yeah, that’s, that’s crazy.
19:14:03 Yeah, I think, and especially like in that example like it was, it was all over the news like everyone knew about this huge issue, but like I feel like at least from my perspective when it was actually happening.
19:14:19 I just assumed oh you know their whole entire town like it’s it’s everyone, but it wasn’t, it was you know the poor areas that like then couldn’t stand up for themselves.
19:14:31 Right. Say yeah and like the town of Flint is 57% Black 37% white and 4% Latino. And so that, like, primarily black residents in this town and they don’t have environmental safety, but, you know, maybe a predominantly white neighborhood nearby does, right,
19:14:51 is just, you know, weird and shouldn’t happen but at the same time, you have, I just feel like situations like these, like, it’s important for everyone to be super transparent with the information that they’re giving to the media.
19:15:06 Absolutely.
19:16:07 This, I think, has a good connection to the topic that we’ve learned a lot about in class about the one and the other, and just this whole situation of othering and finding this example of how, you know, in this case the white people were the one and
19:16:26 they decided that, you know, everyone else was the other way. Yeah, exactly. Yes, like they weren’t the main focus of this like disaster that was happening.
19:16:38 And so I think that that is like a big overarching like theme within racism is like the one in the other and who is deciding that they, you know, belong, or are better than someone just because of their skin tone.
19:16:54 For sure it’s like who, who gets to say that, you know, we are whatever and this person’s the other, it’s like, how do they feel about you know it’s like where do I come from and why does something good to say that.
19:17:08 Yeah, it’s, it’s super interesting too like this town is predominantly black. Yes, from what I’ve read which could also, you know, who knows, it was one source, but it does seem like people that have a white skin tone decided, you know like
19:17:28 the board was mostly white and like stuff like that so it is very interesting that like that is that just kind of privilege and, but everyone is a resident of this town everyone you know as legal, they vote they are in the town you know they’re members
19:17:43 of the town but they still could be the other. Definitely. And I think it not only goes for people who are black but there’s people have so many other races that feel like the others well you know there’s Chinese immigrants in New York that on a daily
19:18:00 basis struggle with feeling like the other. Um, there’s a lot of Asian hate crime that has raised since the pandemic.
19:18:10 Um, so many people are feeling like this, and it’s just, again, who are we to say who gets to feel like the other, right. So you wrote one of your diary is on the hate crimes, do you want to talk about that a little bit.
19:18:24 Yes. Um, so, I found this one very interesting I actually started seeing it on Instagram so this one, became really prevalent pretty recently, but it’s about the rising or the increasing number of hate crimes towards Asian Americans.
19:18:40 Since the start of the pandemic there’s been a big surge in Asian, or yeah Asian attacks across the country.
19:18:50 Um, I found one article that said that there are so many incidents that haven’t been reported, because a lot of these people are afraid to speak up, or there’s like a language barrier that prevents them from being able to say anything.
19:19:04 So I don’t have the exact number of attacks that there have been and I don’t think there is an accurate number of attacks that have been reported because so many of them go on reported.
19:19:14 Yeah, but yeah that that’s really like just scary because you know you want to think that if something is happening that’s wrong, you’ll be able to speak out, stand up for yourself and get it fixed.
19:19:27 Yeah, absolutely.
19:19:30 Yeah but, um, there’s one occasion that I found or one incident. A man was walking in Koreatown in LA, and he was attacked by two men, things like this happen all the time but not only was he attacked but people go through the neighborhoods yelling like
19:19:46 all Asians need to die like things like that.
19:19:51 And it’s just, it’s really saddening.
19:19:52 Yeah. And it also like as much as the whole situation is terrible. I do think that because it has happened during the pandemic. a lot of people are online more, some people still, you know, haven’t gone back to even going to a restaurant or anything like
19:20:11 that and so a lot of things have been on social media. And I’m not saying at all that everything on social media is true and accurate and all that but I do think is it it has been a great eye opener to start to get people to look into issues like this.
19:20:29 As much as you know, the pandemic has been so terrible I do think that this is one of the very few like good things that has come out of it. Yes, and I yeah 100% I think that everyone being inside more not going out as much as much as that stinks but
19:20:46 it has helped spread awareness to issues like these like all the ones we’ve talked about today.
19:20:53 Um, and I mean we’re nowhere near like solving all these issues but I think that bringing attention is one of the biggest things that we can do to take steps forward and solve issues.
19:21:03 Yeah.
19:21:05 So I do think we are running out of time for our episode today so we’re going to wrap it up. Do you have anything you want to say to close it off grace.
19:22:15 Okay that is all we have for today thank you so much for listening to our episode, we loved talking about the school zone lines, racism from all races, and environmental racism.
19:22:32 So, thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Bye.
One systemic injustice that came to mind instantly when I read the description for the diary posts was the inequalities that are present in public school systems. More specifically, the unfair redlining of district boundaries. This practice is when the board that assigns district boarders purposely segregates the minority communities to be assigned to lower income schools with a “red line”. Redlining can also be from banks denying mortgages for certain areas. This unjust process is used by many school districts and provides many inequalities for the students and families. This injustice is systemic because it is truly embedded into the society and their people. The term stemmed from maps created during the New Deal that intentionally used the color red to indicate which urban neighborhoods were “hazardous,” which most often were the areas that had majority black or Hispanic residents. The nature of this inequality is stemmed in racism and cannot be ignored.
The lines are drawn based on many different factors, but one unjust factor is the income level of the homes in the area. One example of this start contrast is in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. The article states that, “at Lincoln Elementary School only 16% of the students at Lincoln come from low-income families, and over 80% are proficient in reading. The school shares an attendance zone boundary with Manierre Elementary school, where 99% of the students are low-income, and only 11% are proficient in reading. These two schools, so starkly different, serve the same neighborhood” (Deroche). This is only one example in one city, however, these similar statistics are found all over America because of redlining. (image below)
A source that I found particularly helpful and meaningful when doing research was a USA Today article about systemic racism in schools being at the root of many other problems. The link to the article is found here. There is a very powerful video at the beginning of the piece that I have embedded below because I strongly encourage everyone to watch it. It is a three minute narration of some very important points to make about the fight for racial equality in our country, specifically in schooling.
One connection to the inequality in public schools that I found relevant from our discussed texts thus far in the semester was to “Story of my Body” by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In the story, the speaker states that the hierarchy was “pretty white girl, pretty Jewish girl, pretty Puerto Rican girl, pretty black girl” (Cofer, 439). Although this example does not pertain to redlining, it still demonstrates an obvious inequality of race within a public school that should be abolished.
Works Consulted
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “The Story of My Body.” True Women and Real Men.
Edwards, Kelly. “Redlining: How It Continues to Affect Education Today – Activism, Meet Impact: Novel Hand.” Activism, Meet Impact | Novel Hand, 17 June 2020, novelhand.com/redlinings-effect-on-education-today/.
Guastaferro, Lynette. “Why Racial Inequities in America’s Schools Are Rooted in Housing Policies of the Past.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 2 Nov. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/11/02/how-redlining-still-hurts-black-latino-students-public-schools-column/6083342002/.
“Redlining: The Real Reason Our Schools Are Segregated.” Project Forever Free, 10 June 2020, projectforeverfree.org/redlining-the-real-reason-our-schools-are-segregated/.
“Systemic Racism Has Led to Education Disparities.” Temple Now | News.temple.edu, 3 Feb. 2021, news.temple.edu/news/2020-06-25/systemic-racism-has-led-education-disparities.
In this novel, we learn that Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, is an undocumented immigrant who works at a nail salon in the Bronx, New York. Growing up in rural town in China and moving to the United States meant that Polly had to leave Deming Guo with his grandfather in order for Polly to work up enough money for them to live. When the book begins, they are living with Polly’s boyfriend Leon in his predominantly white neighborhood and get judged for speaking a different language and looking different than those around them. These painful consequences are only a small part of the risks that Polly has to live being an undocumented immigrant.
People who immigrate to this country to live are technically supposed to go through a process to become a full citizen and member of our nation. Some, however, do not go through this process for many reasons and live in our country illegally, or without documentation. This affects the entire lifestyle of a person; they constantly live with fear of being deported or getting in trouble. The country of the United States has changed over the course of our history in regard to undocumented immigrants and their lifestyles, but not much.
Through research about undocumented immigrants in America, I found that a study in 2014 provides evidence that “undocumented immigration has not increased the prevalence of drug or alcohol problems”, which is one positive side of the research. However, an article about undocumented children’s mental health written in 2013 states there is evidence of a connection in decline of mental and emotional health in these children due to their situation. When focusing on articles written over 30 years ago, I found that the country was much less focused on the positive aspects that can come with immigrants, undocumented or documented, and were definitely not focusing on the mental and emotional health of their children. The political climate of the time was focused on the theme that immigrants did not belong.
Through reading The Leavers, you get insight into the lives of both undocumented parents and children and the struggles that they have to face in their everyday lives to stay in this country and life a happy life.
Free, Janese L., et al. “Harvesting Hardships: Educators’ Views on the Challenges of Migrant Students and Their Consequences on Education.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 47, no. Part 3, Dec. 2014, pp. 187–197. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.08.013.
Gonzales, R. G., et al. No Place to Belong: Contextualizing Concepts of Mental Health Among Undocumented Immigrant Youth in the United States. 2013. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0002764213487349.
Light, Michael T., et al. “Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990-2014.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 9, Sept. 2017, pp. 1448–1454. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303884.
