Music is a huge influencer in todays day and age. If your like me, you listen to music while doing any task. Many music artist use their influence in music to speak on issues plaguing their lives. In 2017 rapper, Joey Bada$$, released his album All-Amerikkkan Bada$$. This album was written in order for Joey to use his influence to speak on the topics of racism and injustice in contemporary America. He quotes, “So it starts with me bringing [these topics] into the conversation and putting it in the music.”
Influence for this album was pinpointed to the injustices of many black men in the year 2015. These man were unarmed and exposed to police brutality solely based on the fact for the color of their skin. Joey says, “I felt really affected by it all because I’m just so close to it,” he says. “I’ve had encounters with police where I’ve been stopped and frisked or treated unfairly or misjudged and I could imagine those situations being something else.”
All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ deputes songs that all encompass the idea of police brutality. The song “Babylon” is written for the death of Freddie Gray who was killed in Baltimore, Maryland. Freddie was an unarmed black man killed in the wake of police brutality. Joey says this situation made him so fired up because in 2015 in general, there were so many unarmed black men killed that he felt he was somewhat responsible to do something about it. He says, “It’s about flexing my freedom of speech as much as I can.”
This entire album addresses the injustices the black community. We see a power struggle emerge as we can almost address the situation in the terms of the “one” and the “other.” As police brutality continues we can look at the black community being targeted as the so called “other” while the police see themselves as the “one.” As police brutality has become the topic of almost all news stations in the recent months I believe we are experiencing a shift, the “one” and “other” complex is one that will soon cease to exist. With Police becoming the highlight of negative connotations, the stereotypes against the black community should start to fizzle away leaving the Police in a state of new training habits and ending stereotyping.
Hi everyone. My name is Libby Preslock and I am a second year student at Ohio State. I’m majoring in operational management, and I’m getting a minor in finance. In today’s episode we’ll be diving into the topic of cults the one cult we are really going to dive into is the Westboro Baptist Church. The reason the Westboro Baptist Church is a great topic to dive into is due to their racist and homophobic background. So let’s start by giving a little background on what even is the Westboro Baptist Church, and what do they even stand for? Well, the Westboro Baptist Church is an American hyper capitalist hate group. It is known for engaging in inflammatory homophobic, and anti American pickets, as well as hate speech against atheist, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and numerous Christian denominations. Now that we’ve given some backstory, we did ask our listeners on our website about a week ago and let them know that we are going to be talking on this topic, we ask people to either write or call in for advice about particular circumstances they had seen regarding the Westboro Baptist Church or cults in general. The first question we have was sent in by Christie. Christie asked, Why does the Westboro Baptist Church pickit army funerals? And how is this a form of injustice? Well, Christy, that’s a great question and a great place to start off when it comes to investigating the Westboro Baptist Church. One of the most interesting things the Westboro Baptist Church does is attend the funerals of Army soldiers and pickit them the main reason members of the church attend funerals is to conduct anti gay protests at the military funerals, their organization pickets, celebrity funerals and public events as well as for the churches made the statement, the soldiers are dying for the homosexual and other sins of America. The main reason the church pickets these funerals is to promote their anti homosexuality agenda. So the idea of the Westboro Baptist Church picketing army funerals is the first example of injustice, the injustice of homophobia. The Westboro Baptist Church also targets transphobic members, they express many transphobic messages in their protest. When members of the church decide to go protest, they come out with signs. Most of these signs always read messages of hate transphobia homophobia or other sources of injustices. Some examples of the signs that they hold include thank God for dead soldiers, and the most shocking of them all. God hates F*gs. Next, we will be moving on to another question asked by another listener. Our next listener, Chris asked, How does the Westboro Baptist Church target those of Jewish heritage? This is another great question. The Westboro Baptist Church has many forms of anti semitism that they have had and believed in since their founding time. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church believe their church is the one and only quote unquote, right church for those. They don’t believe in other churches or other religions, and believe people that don’t worship what they believe, are going to be sent to hell. To more specifically answer Chris’s question on why the Jewish community is so heavily targeted by the Westboro Baptist Church, we can look into some of the quotes that members of the church have made against them. The first quote against the Jewish community comes from margie Phelps, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, she makes the claim that Jews were once one of the loudest voices in favor of homosexuality and abortion, and that, quote unquote Jews claim to be God’s chosen people. Another member of the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps also makes many harsh statements against the Jewish community.
In one example, in 1996, Phelps began a campaign called Topeka Baptist Holocaust. He was attempting to draw attention to attacks perpetrating against Westboro Baptist Church pickers, and saying that they were not random, but organized attacks orchestrated by Jews and homosexuals. Fred Phelps has also made statements on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He makes the claim that American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed into filthy F*g lust. by answering Chris’s question and given examples on how the Jewish heritage and community is targeted by the Westboro Baptist Church, we now look at our second form of injustice, anti semitism. So far in this podcast, we now have taken a look into two forms of injustices the cult Westboro Baptist Church stands for and make claims for. We have looked into their claims against anti homosexuality and anti semitism. We now will be taking an intermission between talking about the injustices the Westboro Baptist Church stands for, we will be taking a look into a way that people decided to take a stand against the Westboro Baptist Church in a way that’s quite comical and funny. The way that people did this is a house across from the Westboro Baptist Church was painted with the Gay Pride rainbow colors. The man who orchestrated this Aaron Jackson says he took inspiration from a nine year old kid who stood up to the Westboro Baptist Church protesters painting the house in the colors of the Gay Pride rainbow. When they are done, they claim they’re going to be adding a huge rainbow flag in front of the house to add a little bit of extra ombiance. Someone from the Westboro Baptist Church made a quote about what they thought about the house, it was said that the reported representative of the Westboro Baptist Church said she loved the paint job because they kept the eyes of the earth on the church’s message. The message again, she means is the injustice of homophobia. A native bystander to the house a Midwesterner also made the quote that I’m proud of the welcome Jackson’s received. After all, he explained why he’s doing this. He wants to show where there’s hate, and there also can be love. This house is a great example of ways people are taking a stand against the churches injustices and it’s hatred towards others.
We now are going to go back to listening and answering questions that people have sent in on the topic of the Westboro Baptist Church. The next question was sent in by listener Sara. Sara asked the question of how the Westboro Baptist Church has targeted and hurt people of the Islamic culture. This is another great question. As this opens up the third installment of the injustices the Westboro Baptist Church has demonstrated. We can look into how this takes place as we look into comments made by jael Phillips, another member of the Westboro Baptist Church. In an interview in 2011, she and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church tauntingly and publicly burned a copy of the Quarn while being scolded by a Muslim man. These members of the Westboro Baptist Church made the quote that the Quarn was an atrocious piece of trash, and that they were giving it the proper respect that it deserved by doing so. Not only did these members make quotes against the Muslim community, they also decided to pickit the funeral of a Muslim mans wife the following week. jael Phillips was present for this and said the wife’s death was partly due to her Muslim husband having spoken out against the Westboro Baptist Church. This therefore meant that he she rejecting God in bringing his righteous judgment down upon him. She also commented that all those angry little Muslims can just shut their mouths. These examples all lead us into the third installment of the injustices is the Westboro Baptist Church preaches. We have now looked at the Westboro Baptist Church’s stance on the anti homosexuality, anti semitism. And now a look at Islamophobia. Islamophobia can be described as a dislike of or the prejudice against Muslim or Islams especially as a political force. In this case, we see a huge prejudice taking fold, as members of the church make derogatory comments as well as picket funerals, targeting and hurting the Muslim culture. The last question is asked by listener Jacqueline, Jacqueline asked the question to describe the pickets that the Westboro Baptist Church puts on. I decided to save this question for last as this encompasses all three of the injustices we talked about. And now we have a better understanding of what the Westboro church preaches. When they go out to do these pickets. The Westboro Baptist Church carries out daily picketing in Topeka, Kansas and also travels nationally to picket funerals of gay victims, gay bashing, and as well as those people who have died from complications related to AIDS. This example of picketing goes back to the Westboro Baptist Church’s stance on homophobia. Some of the most horrifying events that the Westboro Baptist churches picketed are for funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, and the West nickel mines school shooting. The Westboro Baptist Church is able to keep its protests legal in nature. They are non violent, and they are able to acquire the proper permits needed to continue picketing. Although the Westboro Baptist Church has been able to tiptoe around the idea of getting in trouble through law enforcement, they recently have run into some trouble. This happened when they started protesting military funerals. We talked about this a couple minutes ago, again, talking about the injustice of homophobia. The public acts of protesting the military funerals cast a political spotlight on the group and gave its vast attention even though they are very small size. Another weird thing the Westboro Baptist Church does along with picketing is release parody songs. You actually can look these up on YouTube if you’re interested in what they say. The Westboro Baptist Church members, Steve drain claims that they make their songs and the choices of their songs to revolve around mostly popularity. They want it to encompass main stream stuff and the whole idea of doing the parodies is to preach. to round up this question. The Westboro Baptist Church Mainly uses picketing to get the churches main points across. Although these points are only agreed with by churches, members, they still want others to see and see the hatred that they spew. to round out this podcast, we were able to see the injustices that cult mentality can bring, mainly the Westboro Baptist Church in its three main examples of injustices. We also dived into the idea of what their pickets stood for, and the horrible things that they say during their pickets. I really appreciate everyone’s time coming to this talk, and I thank everyone who asked questions through our website, thank you so much, and I really hope to see you guys in our next podcast.
In week seven we took a look into the oppression of woman, after war time, having no option but to wear a vail, even if they did not want to. In this article we take a took at how Iranian officials reacted to the black lives matter movement that swept the United States and other places around the world. Immediately following the murdering of George Floyd it was observed that Iranian officials did not shy away from condemning him murder. Government officials did not focus on the idea of justice from the actions of the police, rather they use this opportunity as a way to further speak their narrative.
They more or less are condemning the years of brutality African Americans have faced, they will not advocate for the need for justice in America, they will not take responsibility to reflect on Irans past with racism and treatment. One survey that reflects the racism and segregation that Iran backs is that carried out by the Iranian students polling agency. It was discovered 43% of respondents support a ban on Afghan nationals living in the city. It also reports that 44% want Afghan residents to be forced to live in designated living.
One of the most hard hitting quotes from the article states, “Iranian officials have not spoken out to promote racial justice or free speech. They have spoken out to take advantage of the instability within the United States to distract from their own human rights violations and to attract sympathy and support for their narrative of being the victim of a global tyrant.”
With this narrative, the idea that countries outside the united states have responded to the black lives matter movement in a negative light, a course concept that becomes reflected is the idea of the one and the other. As seen by the statistics stated in the article many respondents see black Israelis as the other and themselves as the one. The black Israelis have become the outside group as many believe they should be sanctioned away from living in many large areas of the country, a blatant disregard for the group as people and as a whole.
In regard to this article it opened my eyes to the ways the movement have been seen in places other than the USA. Before researching and reading this article I had little to no knowledge on the effect the BLM movement had across the world. I now am in understanding that places did not respond in ways like the USA did, rather many middle eastern countries responded in the opposite manner that what occurred in other western countries.
This week we are diving into the novel, Interpreter of Maladies, a collection of nine short stories by an American author of Indian decent. The stories encompass and explain the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who become caught between their roots and the new explored world. India is one of the worlds largest Democracies, it consist of 1.3 billion people, and officially recognizes 16 languages. India was first colonized by England in the 1600’s but historically split and gained independence from them in 1947. Beginning in the 1960’s many Indians emigrated west to other parts of the world. This gives way to many Indians becoming exposed to other nations cultures, ideas, and people. This further allows a mix of identities to start to take root. This is when the authors idea of fighting between a persons true Indian roots and their new found countries ideals really starts to take effect. In India we do see english become the acquired language for most colonial occupants of India. In the specific story, Interpreter of Maladies, out of nine we are introduced to Mr. ad Mrs. Das. The Das’s are Indian Americans visiting the country of their heritage. During their tour they are greeted with a tour guide, Mr. Kapasi.
This novels main focus comes from the internal struggles of Indian Americans trying to find their identity in a new and ever changing world. As we look closer into the actual title more information can be found to learn and explain the themes behind many of the stories. Author, Jhumpa Lahiri uses the expression Interpreter of Maladies to “suggest clarifying or explaining aliments of the body, mind, or moral. (Sarkar, 2018)” This sparks the idea that the main purpose of these short stories is clear the conscious of struggling conflicts and or ideas that may not align with an individuals moral. This again can be seen in the story as we see many Indian Americans struggling with the idea of who they really are, their roots, and who they truly are supposed to become.
To further dive into the background of this novel we can take a look into the main themes author, Jhumpa Lahiri uses to further his ideas in the novel. The first main theme he uses is Marriage. We see the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Das in the story. We also see the theme of assimilation, using the theme of assimilation allows Lahiri to show how his characters face the challenges of adapting to an unfamiliar and unknown culture as they search for a sense of themselves. We finally can see the themes of social and emotional maladjustment. All the characters that Lahiri writes about need an understanding and compassion to come to them either by another character or cultural ideal.
Works Cited:
“Interpreter of Maladies Context.” Course Hero, www.coursehero.com/lit/Interpreter-of-Maladies/context/.
Sarkar, Somnath. “Significance of the Title of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies.” All About English Literature, Blogger, 3 Jan. 2021, www.eng-literature.com/2018/12/significance-of-title-of-Jhumpa-Lahiri-short-story-interpreter-of-maladies.html.
