Author: nelson.1514

Text Review: Hidden Figures

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The film Hidden Figures is set in the 1960’s during which racial segregation was still heavily in place. People of different races did not mingle, did not share the same spaces, and were seen as having very different lives. Within the film, these rules start to bend, starting with three very intelligent Black women working for NASA. While working for NASA, they worked on computing numbers in order to help compete with Russia in putting a man in space. Throughout the film, Catherine, among her two best friends, fight against racial injustice in order to do their jobs effectively and prove they belong. Although the film is heavily related to the topic of racial injustice, there are also many instances of gender inequality and injustice within the film as well. There was a point where Catherine was not allowed in meetings, not only because of her race, but her gender as well.

Hidden Figures displays multiple comparisons to lessons related to the coursework from this class, the main relation is the concept of the One and the Other. There are several different aspects shown in this film regarding this concept, the first could be that the Black characters could be depicted as the ‘Other’ and the white as the ‘One’. Throughout the film, the white characters acted superior to the Black characters and showed hated when they wanted equal opportunities as them. Through the whole film, the white characters were the leaders in charge. Another example of this lesson would be of gender, males would be the ‘One’ as females would be the ‘other’. In the film, it was predominately male characters in the roles of power and when a female wanted to be an engineer, disregarding the fact of her race, they said it wouldn’t be possible because she was a female.

This film raises many questions for me, and I think the creator of Hidden Figures wants you to walk away from the film feeling empowered from this film. I think the creator wants you to reflect on your life and how you live your life much like how our diary of systemic injustices challenge us to look at the world, to make sure you are respecting all humans regardless of race, gender, age, etc. The film makes you wonder how diversity has changed throughout the years and I’m very curious to see how the world will continue to change throughout the years. How do you think the world will be in the next few years in regard to diversity? The next decade?

Week 13: Changing the Way Black Culture is Represented in Movies

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Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther made it obvious that their goal was to take on the general race issues in films. When Black Panther came out, it became the highest-grossing movie with a mostly black cast (Forbes), and it was the first Marvel movie to feature a black superhero in the titular role. Most movies will have the main character as a white man and if they have black characters, they are used for comic relief or simply a sidekick. This movie took that general troupe and flipped it around with the black man as the main character surrounding by mostly black characters. The only white characters were used as comic relief or small assistance to the black character. Examples are Agent Ross helping with the planes and Klaw helping Kilmonger rise. Those were the only two and they were minor to the story.

In addition to the cast, Black Panther made sure that the makeup, costume design, and set design was honest to African culture. In many movies, black characters are portrayed to follow the stereotypes people have about where they would live or what they would wear. Black Panther avoided these stereotypes.

The film, Black Panther, accomplished a lot when it comes to race, gender, sexuality, and social justice issues in films, but it was truly successful due to its cultural impact. If Black Panther was to come out and not be the critical and box office success it was, it would not have been able to be as effective in sharing its message. The film became the top-grossing movie domestically in 2018, including being the fourth highest domestically and 11th highest worldwide (Black Panther Box Office Mojo). It even became the first superhero movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was also nominated for six other Oscars, winning three. The success of Black Panther proved that creating a film that has a mainly black cast, is led by black actors, portrays women as strong and intelligent, and tackles important social justice issues, is not a risk, but a way to make a great and profitable movie.

 

Works Cited:

“Black Panther (2018).” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2017b.htm.

Gabbard, Krin. Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture. Rutgers University Press, 2004.

Grossing Film With A Black Cast.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 Feb. 2018,  https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/02/20/a-426-6-million-opening-makes- black-panther-the-top-grossing-film-with-a-black-cast/#5e0970c112a6

Weaver, Andrew J. “Role of Actors’ Race in White Audiences’ Selective Exposure to Movies.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 Apr. 2011, academic.oup.com/joc/article/61/2/369/4098571?login=true.

 

 

Discrimination in the Workplace

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Being tasked with this assignment feels almost reflective in a way. It makes you think back on your life and how you have been living it and makes you evaluate whether you have been letting systemic injustice slide in your day-to-day life. Or whether you have blindly been leading the act of systemic injustice without knowing it. I just recently learned the true definition of systemic injustice and it is broader than I imagined; “is a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society or an organization. It can lead to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education, among other issues.”

When scrolling through twitter and various other social media platforms, I always come across posts about people being denied the opportunity to work for a company solely because of the color of their skin. After seeing countless posts, I decided to look up articles on this topic. I found that black unemployment rates have been consistently twice as much as whites no matter if the economy is going up or down (DeSilver). It also does not make a difference if the job applicant has a college degree or not, the statistics remain. Another shocking statistic is that job applicants with white-sounding names get called back about 50% more of the time than applicants with Black-sounding names (Bertand).

This classified as systemic injustice because it is something that is usually overlooked and is embedded into our normal practice but is actually issues as discrimination. A way to try to fix the injustice going on within the employment side of things would be to have more diversity within the workplace. Allow the same treatment for all races and regardless of names and backgrounds, judge applicants on their resumes and qualifications for a job, not by their races.

This type of systemic injustice reminds me of the De Beauvoir’s one/other theory from our course’s content. No matter the color of someone’s skin, they should be given equal opportunity to a job position. Sadly, in our society, Black applicants in this case would be labeled as the “other” where white applicants would be labeled as the “one”. Change has to happen at a large level for this issue to be resolved and that way all races can be seen as equal and they can receive equal opportunity for jobs that everyone deserves.

A visual representation of people experiencing discrimination. https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2019/12/10/putting-some-numbers-on-racism-in-canada/

*Some more good reads on interesting stories within the workplace that represent discrimination*

Fighting hair discrimination in Florida, lawmakers work to pass legislation

Black women and men share their experiences wearing natural hair in the workplace

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/03/23/fighting-hair-discrimination-in-florida-lawmakers-work-to-pass-legislation/

 

Black electrical worker files discrimination lawsuit

March 12, 2021

https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-discrimination-lawsuits-north-carolina-ede9f78d5d79c748e9b875471b526411

References for written portion:

DeSilver, Drew. “Black Unemployment Rate Is Consistently Twice That of Whites.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 27 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/21/through-good-times-and-bad-black-unemployment-is-consistently-double-that-of-whites/.

Bertrand, Marianne, and Sendhil Mullainathan. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination.” NBER, 28 July 2003, www.nber.org/papers/w9873.