Author: zhao.2744

Text Review: Get Out

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The film of Get Out is a movie released in 2017, which narrates a horror story that a black man (Chris) is invited by his white girlfriend (Rose) to spend the weekend with her parents. But then Chris found he was caught up in a huge conspiracy. His girlfriend’s family is engaged in a consciousness transfer operation, transferring the consciousness of the elderly, frail or disabled white man to the body of the black man by the operation. Finally, Chris escapes the horrific town with the help of his friend.

The Get Out is definitely not a pure suspense thriller, which is a metaphor for the problem of racism about African American. In the film, the father of Rose is full of praise for Chris’s excellent physical fitness. However, his admiration of Chris’s body, which seems to be a compliment, is actually a form of racism. The actor utilized the story to criticize those who talk about equality, but still build the wall between them and African Americans. In most people’s opinion, the physical fitness of Africans is considered to be the best among all ethic groups. Besides, the important position of Africans in modern sport events demonstrates that the explosive force and muscle strength are far higher than other groups. However, the advantages become a factor of discrimination. For example, when people refer to the Asians, they would think about good math, hard work and careful calculation; when they refer to Jews, they would think about moneymaker, canny and wealthy. What may seem like a virtue is actually a form of racism.

After I watched the movie, I thought that the opinion expressed in the film was related to a concept “one and other” in our course. In today’s society, many Americans still consider Africans or Asians as “other”. In their eyes, Africans or Asians are different from them just because of skin color. In this way, the differences of treatment between African and their ethic group is obvious. On the other hand, some people intentionally avoid the racism problem to treat Africans overly friendly, but indeed hurt them. The so-called “equality” is not just to show good will, but to stand on the same footing with others.

 

Week 14 : Regarding the Pain of Others

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Regarding the Pain of Others is created by Susan Sontag about the war photography, which talks about the relationship between human pain reflected in the image and the spectators. Susan uses the mutilated arms, bloodied faces, black and white images in the war and disaster to reflect the cruelty and misery of the world. Although the tragic images can arouse the spectator’s compassion, people’s feeling of helplessness makes these images seem redundant and absurd, which are ubiquitous and incompatible in life.

Since the spread of photographic technology during the First World War, people began to look from a distance at what was happening thousands of miles away, witnessing the somewhat horrifying reality and suffering of others. Definitely, photography as a media to inspire compassion, sympathy, and anger to focus on the disasters and wars outside of the personal world. However, like Susan said, “photography shrivels up as much sympathy as they create”, while we are eating our food, we are watching on television which reports a bloody conflict taking place in some corner of the world. Meanwhile, we are unconsciously bystander of other’s disaster. Even the news and images of war are the seasoning for small talk with friends or family members.

In this book, While Susan focuses on the ethical value of photography itself, she also criticizes the medium through which these images are transmitted. She considers the motivation of the photographers who take pictures about war. Their purpose is to provoke a reaction and click rates. The flood of information caused by TV and newspapers excavates and satisfies the human peep addiction. And people unconsciously get used to and approve this way of life which watches the pain of others. This is a result of the media’s tactics to attract audience rating in way of compassion as cheap commodity, pain as pungent material.

Citation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52373.Regarding_the_Pain_of_Others

Yo, Is this Racist ? Post by Sheng Li and Feifan Zhao

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Created by Sheng Li and Feifan Zhao

Sheng Li：Hello! This is Sheng Li from OSU students radio. Most people are sensitive about race, so most people may avoid it. But we’re a student radio station, so we’re free to talk about it on this show. Welcome to the program “Yo, Is this racist?”

Feifan Zhao: Yes. A warm welcome to our program. Sheng, how long have you been in OSU? A semester? A school year? I’ve been at OSU for about two school years. After the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, I went back to China. I care about the situation of Buckeyes’ health. Are they OK?

S: I used to stay in OSU for only one term because of the eruption of COVI-19. Although I only stayed at OSU for one semester, many seniors helped me integrate into OSU’s life as soon as possible in the first month. Therefore, I am also very concerned about them living in the United States.

F: In my opinion, the current epidemic in the United States is well under control. The government and schools are promoting vaccines on a large scale. I believe that the current campus is relatively safe. After the epidemic in the United States stabilizes, I may choose to return to campus.

S: Yes it is. I have also considered this. By the way, have you ever seen a movie called The Transporter? The movie covers the story of selling Asians. What is your opinion on the crime of human trafficking?

F: No, I have never watched it. But I hate the act of human trafficking. In the early twentieth century, after many Asian countries suffered from colonialism, many innocent Asian civilians were trafficked to Western countries such as Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom and other colonial countries. And in the history of the United States, blacks have also been sold to Africa as slaves.

S: Oh! You are just stating some facts. What I want to ask is your attitude and views on discrimination against people of color like human trafficking.

F:As far as I am concerned, racial discrimination should not be forgiven under any circumstances. Those who discriminate against people of color should be judged. Whether they are black or yellow, they should be respected and fair.

S: Ok. I understand what you mean. Do you know that, FeiFan? According to reports, there have been more and more news about the persecution of people of color in recent years. For example, in the United States, many Asians have recently been attacked by others on the street for no reason. And many of the targets of the attacks were elderly people with limited mobility.

F: This is indeed the case, and I am also following this type of news recently. The piece of news that shocked me the most was that three massage parlors in Atlanta were attacked by ruffian, resulting in the deaths of 6 Asians so far. After I watched the incident, I immediately posted a tweet on Twitter to support the protection of Asians. The Asian civil rights groups, current officials at all levels, and Chinese associations across United States came out with condemnation statements and emphasized that racial hate crime must be stopped. On the other hand, the hash “#StopAsianHate” topped Twitter and people of all races, genders and ages takes to the street in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington to protest against Asian hate

S: That also shocked me a lot. This is the crack in the process of ethnic integration. Some extreme people are like the murderer mentioned in your news, trying to destroy the integration between races because of their own prejudice. This is something that all our people don’t want to see. Just like whether in school or in society, it is necessary to equitably integrate all races. The so-called systemic justice means that under one system, no matter what the system is, there is no need for people to discriminate against people of color.

F: Wow! Are you talking about the same principle throughout the story? To be fair, there are good people in the United States, regardless of race; there are heart-warming stories, regardless of region. But the levels are more superficial, just like the “high talk” between them holding red wine and coveting each other, the content is very general. People have many faces. They may spit on the ground and urinate in the corner in the first second, and then use unwashed hands to hold the door for pregnant women in the next minute, and smile gently with their unclean mouth. High-level culture does not have the problem of race discrimination, only class discrimination: class can be crossed through hard work and competition, and race discrimination can only pray for the perfect quality of condoms to stop loss in time.

S: Not only Asians, but African Americans are often treated unfairly. This is also a common topic. Everyone has different opinions on the topic of how to better protect African Americans from discrimination and harassment.

F: Since the independence of the United States, with the rapid development of the liberal capitalist economy, and in view of its advantageous geographical location and political environment, the United States has gradually developed into the world’s largest immigrant country with a population of 300 million. However, with the United States to this day, it is the deep-rooted issue of racial discrimination. Although the United States has legally abolished the relevant laws restricting the political rights of minorities, ethnic minorities represented by blacks, due to their bloody history of captivity and enslavement, have caused them to still be widely regarded in American society.

S: Sure. I definitely agree that too!

F: Just like we learned the concept about “one” and “Others” from this course. The essence of racism and discrimination is that native Americans see Asians or Africans as “Others”, and see themselves as “One”. For those people who are regarded as “Others”, they work hard and trying their best to adapt the environment. However, those people who consider themselves as “One” break their American dream of a better life.

S: Yes, I totally agree with your concept. Last week, we read the book named “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid. The protagonist of this novel also suffers this problem. He loves the United States and works hard to be accepted by his American friends. However, After the terrorist attack of 9/11, people began to see him as “Others”. He faces increasing racism and discrimination after this disaster. And even the woman he loved left him. People break his America dream.

F: Meanwhile you try to think a question. Why the black anti-discrimination struggle has not yielded results? Because they have adopted the wrong method of struggle, trying to suppress the voice of discrimination, instead of eliminating the source of discrimination. This method is destined to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. When suppressing the voice, under pressure, people will ostensibly say that I treat them equally and do not discriminate against any race, but once I have the opportunity, if I don’t get caught, my true mentality will be exposed, and I will discriminate even more severely. This is implicit discrimination.

S: Right. As a counterattack, in the event of serious discrimination against blacks, large-scale disturbances will occur. It is essentially a way of hurting each other: if you hurt me, I will hurt you so that you dare not discriminate against me. This has achieved a balance of power on the surface, but on the one hand, discrimination still exists, but it has been covered up. Because the root causes of discrimination have not been eliminated, the results of the disturbances will plant the seeds of hatred, leading to retaliation, and the situation further deteriorates.

F: Yes, I don’t deny your point. Just like the event of death of George Floyd has caused the mass demonstration, which is known as Black Lives Matter. In the protest march, a number of lawbreaker take advantage of chaos of situation to loot shops and damage public property.

S: In my opinion, This tragedy is a classic example of structural injustice. The case of George Floyd is not an accidental event. Black people are killed during law enforcement every year. In the subconscious of many police officers, black people are dangerous because they have the highest crime rate. This is called “Single story” in our course. In this way, when they face black people during enforcement, they would be nervous and overreact.

F: All in all, I think most people will generally agree with a society in which various resources are allocated to everyone in the society in a more reasonable way, so that everyone can get what they deserve. Resources. The type and amount of resources a person obtains should depend as much as possible on the person’s own choices and actions. Of course, this kind of assumption is obviously ideal, and until now, there has not been a distribution rule that conforms to this ideal and satisfies everyone. However, based on this higher idealization standard, we can also derive the definition of “discrimination” in turn, that is, in a certain system or culture, if a person’s differentiated treatment in terms of resource allocation and social circumstances is similar to that person’s If there is no causal relationship between the actions and actions, then we will say that this person has suffered “discrimination” and intuitively will think this is a bad and unfair thing.

S: Our program is going to say good bye. Thanks for listening to our program! If you like us, please keep focusing on us.

F: Thanks for your listening! If you like us, please keep focus us. Bye bye!

 

 

News source from: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a32728194/black-lives-matter-timeline-movement/

https://www.thecut.com/2020/08/man-pinned-down-by-minneapolis-police-officer-dies.html

News source from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth

 

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase: Stop Asian Hate

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This week, I found a news: “Eight people, most of them women of Asian descent, were killed Tuesday night in three shooting at Atlanta-area spas before police arrested a 21-year-old man suspected of being the lone gunman.” Besides, according to report, “The police said the suspect had previously been a customer of at least two of the businesses where eight people were killed. Also, the House held its first hearing on anti-Asian discrimination in three decades.”

Although the suspect denies he discriminates against Asians, a number of increasingly people think this case was race-related. After this murder case, it pushed Asians into a hate crime atmosphere. The Asian civil rights groups, current officials at all levels, and Chinese associations across United States came out with condemnation statements and emphasized that racial hate crime must be stopped. On the other hand, the hash “#StopAsianHate” topped Twitter and people of all races, genders and ages takes to the street in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington to protest against Asian hate. Meanwhile, all kinds of celebrities are the first time to stand out, attack the crime and support the Asian community. NBA officials twitted that “ Last night’s tragic events in Atlanta are part of a disturbing rise in violence and discrimination towards Asian Americans. Today and every day, we stand with the Asian community and condemn all acts of hate and racism.”

This is a classical example of systemic injustice. The Asian community is always easy to ignore. The essence of problem about injustice for Asian American is voice totally weak. As a saying goes from China, tolerate temporary calm the broader picture. However, the Asian community can no longer be silent. We should support each other and fight back when faced with threats and crimes. In recent years, accompanying with rise of Asians in America, an increasing number of Non-Asian Americans begins to hate and discriminate Asian Americans. This is largely because they see immigrant Asians as “one” from “others” described in our course. These Non-Asian Americans think Asians rob a number of job opportunities and fortune. For instance, Asians have remained a quite political and cultural force around Atlanta over the past few decades. In this situation, Asian Americans should unite to confront the racial discrimination.

 

Sources from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth