Author: zhang.9780

Green Book Text Review

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My favorite movie is Green Book, which tells the story of 1962 in the United States. A black pianist named Don Sherry hired a white gangman named Tony as a driver to drive all the way to the south for a music tour.This is the brilliant point of the film. It uses a relatively relaxed road film to complete the serious topic of equal rights for black people. As the conflict escalates step by step, there are many hilarious scenes of friction, and it turns the serious racism into a high-level comedy film.

Black pianist Don Shirley gave up his comfortable life in New York to tour the South in order to sow the seeds of racial equality. As his fellow musicians put it, “It is not enough to be a genius. It takes courage to change hearts.”Don plays the Steinway every time he asks for it, for no other reason than respect.Tang as a black, despite good family education, the skill of itself is a famous artist, but had to play in every time when playing classical music appreciation taste, to cater to the whites are still endured the coldly and unfair treatment of others, and his own culture and make him the unjust under restraint and forbear, believe dignity can overcome violence.In addition to race, there is Don’s sexual orientation, all prejudice is based on ignorance, the world is complex and colorful, respect for everyone’s differences, regardless of color, race, sexual orientation, respect for human equality.

One is not white enough, the other is not black enough, which happens to be the beginning of their mutual understanding.As they get along with each other every day, their personalities gradually change. Tony loses his prejudice, Don loses his stubbornness, and people of different skin tones coexist as equals. Tony becomes no longer irritable because of Tang’s grace, and Don no longer lonely because of Tony’s frankness.I hope we can meet such friends in our life, who will bring us warmth and affection.

Week4 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Background introduction and analysis

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In 1963, black civil rights activists called for a march in the streets of Birmingham to protest racial discrimination. The movement’s leaders applied for permission and security for the march on Easter Sunday, but the local police chief, Conor, refused. The city authorities then asked the court to issue a ban on the march on the grounds of public safety and order. But the leaders of the march defied the court’s order to stop the march. This action led to the arrest of eight of the leaders of the march, including Martin Luther King. While in prison, King received letters from seven prominent church figures demanding that he call off the demonstrations and rely on negotiations and the courts to resolve the matter. King wrote his famous “Birmingham Jail Letter” on the edge of the newspaper.

As an outstanding black leader in the African-American civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., guided by the theological idea of nonviolence, led the blacks in their struggle for citizenship, against racial discrimination and oppression. The city of Atlanta discriminated against blacks and segregated them. In this environment, Christian theology had a strong influence on King. Compared with Atlanta, Birmingham was also full of racial discrimination and racial oppression, which formed a strong contrast with the ideas of freedom, equality, and fraternity advocated by Christian theology, and became the main motivation of King’s struggle.

King, based on Christian theology, advocated fraternity and against blacks who, dissatisfied with the status quo, resorted to violent means of protest. Some people view nonviolent resistance as negative, but in King’s view, it is a positive act of religious faith as opposed to the collective silence of the church. The flipside of King’s vision of nonviolent struggle, moreover, was an affirmation of American values. In King’s view, the American spirit and the Christian spirit were always one and went hand in hand, which objectively won him the support of the federal government. In the midst of the Birmingham black protest movement, President Kennedy even announced the deployment of 3,000 federal troops to the outskirts of Birmingham to safeguard agreements in favor of blacks.

Information from：

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement#Birmingham_campaign,_1963

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

“Yo, is this racist?”

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“Yo, is this racist?”

Luodong Zhang, Xinyu Liu

4/5/2021

 

Luodong: Hi, Xinyu. Welcome to “Yo, this is… Racist” Column. As we all know, the topic of racial discrimination has always been very hot and hard. Can you share some ideas about racial discrimination with us?

Xinyu: Hi, Luodong. Hi, every reader. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my views on racial discrimination. From my point of view, racial discrimination is due to the following three reasons. First, human factors. Human beings are evolving, and in the process of evolution, the natural genes of “seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages” are preserved. Imagine a primitive person, in his familiar environment, dealing with familiar people is certainly more relaxed, but once he enters a strange environment, dealing with unfamiliar people, he will naturally feel alert and insecure. Among races communication, of course, they belong to unfamiliar fields. It’s not difficult to understand the natural hostility and wary attitude towards unfamiliar races. The second, the ruler factor. The rulers gave the masses a wrong cognition through their “Single Story”. Finally, the behavior of excessive possession of resources can be rationalized and legalized by the rulers. In other words, the ruler factor refers to a country, a regime, or a family power. As a ruler, establishing a common enemy stimulates the group strength and collective sense of honor, so as to transform the internal contradictions of the race. The easiest way to set up the enemy is to set up the hatred of the other race. By distorting their culture and uglifying the history of other races, ordinary people will easily define themselves as “one” and different races as “the other”. In the end, it is not easy for ordinary people to feel “guilty” when “the Other” you hate gets hurt. This is also a very important reason why Hitler was able to stimulate the slaughter of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Third, Racial discrimination caused by cultural factors refers to the meeting of people from different cultural backgrounds, so that people often understand their things from their own cultural perspective and with their own values, which sometimes leads to mutual misunderstanding and conflict. The cultural differences between China and the United States are a very clear example. Among the collective interests and individual interests, the Chinese often advocate that the collective interests are far greater than the individual interests. Therefore, the very popular movies in China are often the contents of saving the whole group at the expense of themselves. The United States, on the contrary, pursues individual heroism. Only by saving themselves can we save the whole collective. That’s why in American movies there are characters like the captain of the United States and iron man.

Luodong: well, Thank you for your analysis of the causes of racial discrimination. Protests against racial discrimination are going on every day. The Lakers met with NBA teams such as the clippers and bucks and decided to kneel down on one knee to protest against racial discrimination when the national anthem is played at the beginning of each game. Do you think there is a way to eliminate racial discrimination?

Xinyu: Although we all know that racial discrimination is a narrow thing after civilized education, I don’t think it can be eliminated. Only through our efforts can we reduce this kind of discrimination due to racial differences to some extent. First of all, we should change the perception of black advocate violence. I made a small survey on the history and culture of African blacks. I learned that in ancient times, many primitive tribes also opposed violence and advocated honesty. Like, in Achebe’s novel “things fall apart”, Okonkwo’s tribe had set the perfect legal system and a social operation mode that could make people live and work in peace and contentment. Secondly, I think everyone’s opportunity should be fair. For example, although black people are dominant in NBA, if there is a white man who plays very well, we will not despise him and refuse to let him play just because he is white, right? Similarly, there should be affirmative action in the workplace. In the work, the boss should choose the employee whose work efficiency is higher and performance is better, not whose skin color and appearance are more liked by the boss. In such a virtuous circle, human society will progress.

Xinyu: Recently, because of the outbreak of the covid-19 virus, American society has become unstable. Do you know of any other racial discrimination? It would be better if there were specific events.

Luodong: For me, I think the most painful thing was the shooting in Atlanta. This incident resulted in the deaths of nearly a dozen people and brought the issue of discrimination against Asians back into the spotlight.

Xinyu: Yes, it shocked me too, and that’s what we’re talking about today, racism. It has been an unfortunate year for all countries in the world, with COVID-19 leading to many deaths and social unrest leading to various cases of racial discrimination. Can you give us a little bit more detail about what happened in Atlanta?

Luodong: Sure. On March 16, the carnage lasted nearly three hours. The deranged killer rampaged through three massage parlors, leaving four Koreans, two Chinese, a white woman, and a white man dead. Police arrested him around 8:30 p.m. in the south of Atlanta. He was planning a trip to Florida to continue his killing spree. Asians were killed wherever he went. This is just what I learned from the media.

The memorial sits just outside Gold Spa after the deadly Atlanta shooting.

Xinyu: Yes, the motive of the killer has not yet been determined, except that he was not mentally ill. Do you think this attack was an act of racial violence?

Luodong: I’m not sure if I know enough about racism, although he denied a racial motive, the incident marked the culmination of a year of discrimination and violent crimes against the Asian community. I don’t understand why there is such hatred.

Xinyu: The incident led many Asians to march and hold up “Stop Asian Hate” signs. Could you tell me about your experience of studying in the United States if you have encountered racial discrimination?

Luodong: To be honest, I didn’t know anything about this before I came to the United States, and the news I saw made me worried. However, after I came to the United States, I found that there was almost no such discrimination in my daily study and life. Professors treated students fairly and gave me a lot of help. When I asked teachers and classmates questions, they answered me warmly. When I was a freshman, I lived in an apartment at the university. My roommates were very friendly to me. They would ask me to play basketball together, introduce me to the delicious restaurants around, and also ask me to watch football games on Gameday.

Xinyu: Sounds good! I still like to believe that most people have no animosity towards Asians.

Luodong: I think there are some stereotypes about Asians. As far as I can see, the majority of Asian people are working in service industries like laundry, restaurants, working for other people, etc. Most Asians do not live a rich life, and this level of wealth tends to lead people to think that Asians are the easy type to be bullied. I think this may be one of the reasons. In my opinion, in racial discrimination cases, there must be one party identified as “Others”. Because of the long-term low social status of Asians in the United States, it is difficult for Asians to truly integrate into this culture. As for the “Others” of De Beauvoir, the sense of national common sense can hardly be truly equal. Asians have always been regarded as outsiders.

Xinyu: In history, the United States is a multi-ethnic country with strong ethnic inclusiveness. Under the leadership of the first president, Washington, the United States won the War of Independence and promulgated various political laws, gradually becoming an independent and sovereign country as it is now. So, do you think this kind of discrimination problem can be solved or easily solved?

Luodong: The United States is already a multi-ethnic society, and the current turmoil is largely due to the government’s inaction and the people’s stereotypes and prejudices against other races. There are few courses in schools that really introduce students to foreign cultures. But because of the different customs and cultures of different countries, it is difficult to achieve true unity. In my opinion, such cultural differences are not the reason for discrimination. The main reason is to eliminate the prejudice in people’s minds, enhance social inclusiveness, and weaken the leading news. U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the rise in anti-Asian violence in the United States and called on all Americans to unite against hatred in a speech during a visit to Georgia. I hope that such discrimination can be weakened or eliminated.

 

Works Cited:

https://image.baidu.com/

https://www.16sucai.com/2013/10/27681.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-spa-shootings.html

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-56467496

 

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

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I think there is still a kind of discrimination against people with disabilities. About a week ago I read a piece of news that the bus driver did not recognize a blind man with a disability certificate because the blind man’s eyes looked healthy. In China, people with disabilities can take public transport for free, but they need to show proof of their disability. What I’m trying to say is that not all blind people are completely blind, severe amblyopia is also a degree of disability, and the driver decided that the disability certificate was a sham to cheat the fee for the free ride, just because it looked like both eyes were healthy. It is also disrespectful and unfair to people with disabilities. Although many of the other passengers on the bus defended the blind man, they were more afraid of wasting their time than caring for such people, and many even laughed at or looked down upon disabled people when they met them outside. For these disabled people, life has done harm to them, and even they have to suffer from other people’s in different looks and even ridicule. I think this is a serious injustice, and it should be corrected from people’s hearts. We need to give them care, not a sneer. On the other hand, the government should also strengthen the help for the disabled and the verification of certificates. Many healthy people take advantage of petty gains to pretend to be disabled and cheat the care of kind-hearted people. Such behavior is extremely shameful and unfair and insulting to real disabled people. In addition to normal people, there is a kind of phenomenon that the disabled discriminate against some other disabled people. I think for this phenomenon, the key is that the discrimination of others’ lack of confidence. Only in the discrimination of other disabled people, his fragile and poor self-esteem can be comforted. This is laughable and incomprehensible because I think those disabled people who discriminate against other disabled people know the pain of being teased and discriminated against. Why do they inflict this pain on others else. The two words on the first picture mean employment. Nowadays, many companies will refuse disabled people in their requirements. Although they are weak in physical work, other jobs suitable for them will still be discriminated against.

This is a picture from the earlier news of bus drivers discriminating against disabled people by choosing their passengers.