Author: underwood.275

Text Review Assignment- “Do the Right Thing” directed by Spike Lee // By Emily Underwood

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Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee

            In the 1989 film, Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee, it covers some very important topics about identity, power, and social injustices. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, where the main character Mookie (Spike Lee himself) works at an in town Italian owned pizza shop. Since the demographic of the town is mostly African American people, a character named Buggin’ Out questions why African American’s aren’t being represented on the Italian owned pizzeria wall full of Italian actors. This raises some racial tension between the shop’s customers and the owners. In the end of the film, a brawl breaks out between a character called Radio Raheem, who joined Buggin’ Out in a protest against the pizzeria, and the Italian owners. Radio Raheem was then tragically murdered by the police who were breaking up the fight.

To begin with, an example of a social injustice that was present in this film was the tragic death of Radio Raheem. When the cops showed up during the fight, the cops strangled Radio Raheem when they were holding him back and sadly passed away. This showed police brutality due to the fact that they held extreme force and showed violence when it was uncalled for. This topic is especially relevant in today’s society and addresses an important issue.

Along with the idea of social injustices being present in this film, so is the idea of power and identity. There is a lot of tension between races, especially between the Italians and the African Americans. In one scene, each race was throwing out explicit racial slurs to one another. I also think the idea of power is present within this film through the police and the Italian pizzeria owners. The white police held power and put fear into the African American neighborhood, which exemplified the idea of white supremacy. The Italians in this film also showed power by refusing service to anyone they wanted and feeling superior over the African American people. This idea of power also resembled the idea of the ‘One’ and the ‘Other,’ where the one would be considered the white police because of the power they held over the city and the pizzeria Italians because they felt superior over the other races. The other would be considered the African American residents that lived in Brooklyn because they were powerless against the police and were inferior in the eyes of the Italians. One very important scene that was present in the film was Radio Raheem explaining how there is conflict in society about love verses hate and, in the end, love will always beat hate. I think one of the biggest messages Spike Lee is trying to convey is that in order for society to make peace, the hatred must be overcome by love. This film was to send the message to stop the racism, the hatred, and discrimination, and to overpower it with love.

Figure 1. This photo represents a scene in the film “Do the Right Thing” directed by Spike Lee, where Radio Raheem talks about the idea of love verse hate.

Figure 2. Pictured shown represents the cover of the film, “Do the Right Thing” that was directed by Spike Lee.

“Yo, Is This Racist?” // Podcast- Emily Underwood

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“All of my status characteristics screamed ‘competent’, but nothing could shut down what my blackness screams when I walk into the room” was once quoted by Serena Williams (Cotton 1).

The United States is known for its ‘land of the free,’ but does that free include equality for all? Can someone receive different treatment in this country just by their ethnicity? The quote from Serena Williams written in TIME magazine helps shine a light on these questions as we dive deeper into this analysis: Is the United States health care system racist towards pregnant African American women?

An African American woman shared her birth experience in an article written in TIME magazine. Her story first began with her bleeding at work while being four months pregnant. She called her husband to pick her up from work to take her to the hospital to ensure that nothing seriously horrific was happening to her or her baby. After calling ahead and explaining the condition she was in, she still had to wait 30 minutes in the waiting room, where her condition was so serious to the point where she bled through the chair. After the husband confronted the nurse about moving to the back, the nurse eventually was able to get her a room. Once when she was in a room, she was able to meet up with her doctor, where they announced to her that the  spotting was normal and could be due to her being fat. She was then sent home with no help or other input from her health care providers (Cottom 1).

Later that night, she felt extreme pain in her butt to the point where they had to call the nurse. The nurse stressed that since her back wasn’t hurting with her butt pain, it was probably due to constipation. The pain hurt so badly that she was only able to sleep about 15 minutes out of a 70-hour time span. She decided to go back to the doctor’s office, where the doctor’s reassured her it was probably due to something she ate that was bad. The doctors then hesitantly decided for an ultra-sound to be performed, where it was found that there were two tumors present in her uterus bigger than her unborn child. The doctors also found out that she has been in labor for the past three days and blamed her for not telling them. While she was in the labor room, she asked for pain medication, but the anesthesiologist replied that he wouldn’t give it to her unless she would quiet down. After the first couple of minutes of her child being born, the little infant passed away. The nurse replied, “Just so you know, there was nothing we could have done, because you did not tell us you were in labor” (Cottom 1).

According to Merriam-Webster, racism can be defined as “the belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam-Webster). So, let me ask, was this rooted to racism?

Let’s dive deeper into an analysis of this situation. When the four-month pregnant women first presented her situation to her medical care, she explained to them that she had a severe bleeding problem, which should have been a concern. The doctor explained to her that it was normal to spot while being pregnant and completely brushed off the situation. This first encounter was not handled correctly due to the fact that this woman was not just spotting if she was bleeding enough to go through a chair. This would be considered as a heavy bleeding and she should have been examined right off the bat to ensure she wasn’t having a miscarriage, or any other serious condition. When she was sent home and started to be in pain, the nurse’s only input was that that she was constipated and should try to go to the bathroom, since it was only her butt that was hurting. With the women experiencing severe pain not long after going to the doctor for bleeding, she should have been asked to come into the office for an examination. Instead, her pain was brushed off as if she didn’t know what she was talking about. When she finally went to the doctor’s again for her pain, two tumors were found, and it was expressed that she had been in labor for the past three days. The horrific part about this is that the doctors were extremely reluctant to perform the ultrasound in the first place. If it wasn’t for the ultrasound, they wouldn’t have found the tumors and wouldn’t have realized she was already in labor. The doctors seemed very careless and hesitant to help the women figure out what was wrong with her. It also seemed as if they knew nothing was wrong with her but decided to do an ultra-sound to prove to her that she is over thinking the situation.

If she was examined in the first place, her situation could have been caught sooner. When she went into the labor room to give birth to her baby, she was in so much pain, but the anesthesiologist also acted hesitant. Normally when doctors are hesitant to give women in labor pain medication, it is due to how far in labor they are, not because of them being loud. This comment from the anesthesiologist was extremely uncalled for and unprofessional. This woman has not only had the pain of labor, but she is also dealing with two huge tumors that have been causing her extreme pain in the first place. It seems as if the anesthesiologists thought she was exaggerating the pain she was feeling by making noises and screaming. Even though she was receiving terrible treatment from her care team, the most painful part about this women’s story was that the nurse put the blame of her baby’s death on her. To say they could do nothing to prevent the death of the baby because she didn’t tell the care team that she was in labor was monstrous. The women had presented her problems and concerns to the doctor’s several times and what did they do to help her? Nothing. So, let’s ask, was this racist?

“Like millions of women of color, especially black women, the healthcare machine could not imagine me as competent and so it neglected and ignored me until I was incompetent” (Cottom 1). People in the healthcare had prejudice thoughts about the pregnant women and assumed she was not knowledgeable, skillful, or fit for understanding what was happening. These prenotions put her and her child on the line, which in the end, was inhumane. Her medical team felt superior over her capabilities, leaving her defenseless and helpless in a time when she needed them most. If she was a white woman, would her care team have acted on her situation quicker? It’s horrible to say that this can also be an example of an intersectional identity to where this woman not only had to deal with the fact of just getting care as an African American, but she was also getting the quality care of being a woman in general. There is a greater chance that if this woman was white, she would have received better care. With the health care team believing that white women are competent, they would have examined her sooner and could have potentially changed the outcome of this situation.

Just like this women’s story, these situations are not rare in the United States. It has been found that African American women have a higher maternal and infant mortality rate due the inequality in health care. Statistics show that African American women have a mortality rate of 41 per 100,000 births, where American Indian women have 30, and white women have 13 (Taylor 1). Not only does African women have 28 more deaths than white women, but they are also 11 deaths higher than another race. This shows that African American women have more complications and are receiving a lack of care compared to white American women and other races. It is extremely shocking and heartbreaking to find that the amount and quality of care a woman gets when she is pregnant is dependent on her race.

Not only are these women getting the lack of support they need in the medical field, but they are also losing care support from other programs. Many programs like Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and TANF are being defunded and have had major budget cuts (Taylor et al., 1). If African American women are being treated unfairly in the medical field and have other programs defunded, what will they do? Where would they go? Their support in the United States is so limited and it’s immortally wrong to put them in this situation, especially when it’s based off of the color of their skin.

So, let’s ask again, is this racist? It is evident that the amount and quality a pregnant woman receives in health care is dependent on their ethnicity. There are predetermined feelings, beliefs, and judgements on whether an African American woman is competent. These prenotions have increased the mortality rate for African Americans, which clearly shows there is inequality in the system. The way her care team treated her also portrayed de Beauvoir’s theory of the ‘One’ verse the ‘Other’ (Beauvoir 1). The care team thought less of the African American women and provided her mediocre care quality during her birth experience. The care team demonstrated power over her and made her feel incompetent, when she was.

It is extremely upsetting to say that lives are being put on the line due to other people’s thoughts and actions. With African American women receiving poor quality in the health care system and having other programs defunded, they are not being properly taken care of. It is crucial for a light to be shined on this systematic injustice, because there are 28 women for every 100,000 births who die that don’t have the ability to fight for their lives.

 

 

Figure 1. A visual representation of the amount of maternal mortality rates per 100,000 births of different races in the United States (Petersen et al. 762-65). 

 

Figure 2. A visual representation of the infant mortality rate per 100,000 births of different races (Petersen et al. 762-65).

 

Work Cited

Cottom, Tressie. “I was pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Women”. TIME. 2019. https://time.com/5494404/tressie-mcmillan-cottom-thick-pregnancy-competent/

Definition of RACISM. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism. Accessed on April 4th, 2021.

Petersen et al., “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy- Related Deaths- United States. 2007-2016. “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 68, no.35: 762-65. Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?session=1

Taylor, Jamila. “Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans”. The Century Foundation. 2019. https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?session=1

Taylor, Jamila. Novoa, Cristina. Hamm, Katie. Phadke, Shilpa. “Eliminating Racial Disparities in Marternal and Infant Mortality”. Center for American Progress. 2019. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2019/05/02/469186/eliminating-racial-disparities-maternal-infant-mortality/

Systematic Injustice Show Case: Gender Inequality in China- By Emily Underwood

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A systematic injustice that is present outside of the United States is the way women are being treated in China, especially in the workforce. In an article that was written in The New York Times, it mentioned that a woman was questioned whether she was married or had children in a job application and when she accepted the job, she had to sign an agreement promising that she would not become pregnant in the next two years. If she were to get pregnant then she would be fired without pay or benefits (Qin 1). These types of agreements are increasing in China and are found to be common, even though they are illegal in the country (Qin 1). Women in China are being treated unfairly and are seen as less than men.

At this time, the Chinese government are insisting for women to stay home and have more children to increase their population. With this happening, women are being forced to not have jobs and to focus on domestic life (Qin 1). Not only are women being pushed out of the workforce, but the women who are working are receiving 80% less than the amount of pay men make (Qin 1). This is a systematic injustice because women are being oppressed and are being treated unequally throughout the country of China. They are being forced to either make a decision between their career or having a child and are being expected to be a stay-at-home mom to take care of “domestic” life.

Along with men getting paid more, it is also found that a lot of job listings that are posting in China have a preference for men. In the Chinese Government’s job listings for service, it was reported that in 2018 and 2019, 19% of the jobs mentioned they are looking for men over women (Ducre 1). It was also found that less than 1% of jobs had a preference for women over men (Ducre 1). Having these preferences written in job ads show gender discrimination and inequality. These job ads are inferring that men are better than women and that women are weaker mentally, physically, and less knowledgeable (Stauffer 1).

Gender inequality, prejudice, and the systematic injustice of women from China getting treated unfairly is exemplified in the book, The Leavers, by Lisa Ko. One example that is mentioned in the book is how a failed marriage is the women’s fault and not the mans. The book states, “If a woman was too devoted to her husband it was her fault for being mushy and desperate; if a husband had a girl on the side, it was the wife’s fault for driving him away and both the mistress and the wife’s faults for letting themselves being taken advantage of” (Ko, 132). Prejudice judgements against women are being shown and display systematic injustice due to the gender inequality throughout China. It is crucial to acknowledge the inequality between men and women, and action needs to be taken to ensure all genders are equal.

This picture taken from the article “Only Men Need Apply: Gender Discrimination in Job Advertisements in China” by Brian Stauffer in 2018 shows an example of what a discriminatory job ad in China looks like.

 

This statistical graph was taken from an article “Gender Equality in China’s Labour Market: Some Worrying Signs” that was taken from a blog that was written in 2020 by Jeni Klugman, Limin Wang, and Meiyan Wang. In this graph, it shows that from 1990 and 2019, women in China have had the lowest percentage of participation rates in the workforce.

Work Cited

  1. Ducre, Dorian. “The Fight for Women’s Rights in China”. The Borgen Project. 2020. https://borgenproject.org/womens-rights-in-china/
  2. Klugman, Jeni. Wang, Limin. Wang, Meiyan. “Gender Equality in China’s Labour Market: Some Worrying Signs” (Graph). 2020. DevPolicyBlog. https://devpolicy.org/gender-equality-in-chinas-labour-market-some-worrying-signs-20200304/
  3. Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, 2017.
  4. Qin, Amy. “A Prosperous China Says ‘Men Preferred’ and Women Lose”. 2019. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/world/asia/china-women-discrimination.html
  5. Stauffer, Brian. “Only Men Need Apply: Gender Discrimination in Job Advertisements in China”. 2018. Human Rights Watch.

Context Presentation: Background on Lisa Ko and Her Inspiration for the Book, “The Leavers” -Emily Underwood

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The Chinese American author who wrote The Leavers, Lisa Ko, was born in Queens, New York and grew up in the state of New Jersey (Memolo 1). Ko’s family moved to the United States from the Philippines, which made her the first of her family to be born in America (Ko 25). When growing up, Ko faced several challenges due to the fact that she was one of the only children in her neighborhood who were Asian. Through these struggles, she felt she had to “adjust to life as a person of color” (Memolo 1). As the author grew up and was introduced to Asian American writing, she came to the realization that there was a lack of representation of immigrants in literature (Memolo 1). She also realized that there was a lack of stories that expressed the type of experiences she had when growing up as the only minority in her neighborhood.

As Ko started to question the representation of immigrants and people like her in stories, it helped spark the idea behind her book. It wasn’t until she read an article in the New York Times when she truly became inspired to write this novel.

The Leavers was inspired by the article “Mentally Ill and Immigration Limbo” that was written in the New York Times. According to the article, a woman named Xiu Ping Jiang came to the United States illegally from China. Before she came to America in 1997, she was living in hiding because she was pregnant with her second child. This was an issue because the policy of China was that women were only allowed to have one (Bernstein 1). If she was found to be pregnant with a second child, she would have been forced to have an abortion. Not long after she gave birth to her baby, the government found her and fined her for having two. She later fled to the United States, where she believed would provide her and her family with better opportunities. She paid $35,000 to be illegally transported to the United States by boat and traveled by sea for several months to start a new life (Bernstein 1). Her plan was to first settle down and then bring her two children over to the United States. Along with her struggles and separation from her children, Jiang became mentally ill, which cost her several jobs. When she was on her way to a new job at a Chinese restaurant, she was founded by ICE and was arrested. Jiang was presented in court “with no criminal record, no lawyer, and a history of attempted suicide” (Bernstein 1). She was issued a deportation and was sent to jail, where she was held there for more than a year. Jiang was in detainment for a long time and struggled with her history of being suicidal and mentally ill.

Xiu Ping Jiang’s story was accidentally found because she had the same name as an ex-wife of a mass killer. Jiang is just one example of many who are waiting for their story to be heard, which is what really sparked Ko’s inspiration for writing The Leavers.

 

Works Cited

Bernstein, Nina. “Mentally Ill and in Immigration Limbo”. The New York Times. 2009. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/nyregion/04immigrant.html

Ko, Lisa. “A Better Life- an Essay”. The Algonquin Reader. Vol. 6, no. 1, 2016, pp. 25-27. http://lisa-ko.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ko-essay-THE-LEAVERS.pdf

Memolo, Erika. “Lisa Ko”. Moving Fictions: Exploring Migration in Modern Literature. 2019. https://sites.udel.edu/movingfictions/theleavers/about-the-author/