From the production of Dhar Mann Studios, we learn of an example of systemic racism towards African Americans with Caucasian children. The story begins with a scene of a young boy and his father swinging on a swing set talking about getting ice cream after their trip to the park. Subsequently, a visually disturbed woman approaches the two on the swings asking how the adult man knows the young boy. The reason for the interrogation stems from her concerns about an African American man socializing with a young Caucasian boy at the park. The man kindly replies that this boy happens to be his son. Out of disbelief, the worried woman does not trust his claim. She walks towards the young boy and asks whether the child is okay and whether he knows where his “actual” parents are. The young boy explains that he is alright with the father interrupting to explain again that he just told her that he was his father and had adopted him. She angrily questions whether the man has paperwork to prove the son’s adoption. As many could envision the frustration of being constantly questioned about this unique relationship between father and son, the father suggests that the woman should never judge someone until you get to know them. The lady scurries off worried as ever and the scene ends with the father and soon leaving for their ice cream venture.
As the two are about to take off for ice cream, the lady reemerges with another character, a police officer. The lady explains to the officer how the father is going to “kidnap” the young boy and the officer demands the man step away from the child. The man pleas to the office that in fact, the child is his son and would like to show the adoption papers that are located inside the vehicle. With caution, the officer allows the request made by the man. As the officer thoroughly reviews the documents, he agrees that in fact, the child is the man’s son, and he is free to go. Out of curiosity, the woman asks the father whether he had the choice to pick another race for the child. The scene turns into the African American father explaining that the child had an abusive father after the loss of his mother. When the soon-to-be father came to the adoption center, the child was overjoyed to know that he was being taken home to his adopted father’s loving home.
I think this story teaches the consequences of the “single-story” narrative we learned from the very beginning of this course. Given the woman’s racist assumptions against the father’s race, she immediately assumed that the boy was in danger simply because of her single-story optics of an African American stereotype. Sadly, more often than not, we see systemic racism towards minorities because of racial assumptions that have been created from prejudiced biases towards African Americans and driven narratives from prejudiced individuals.
The Lottery, a documentary film by Madeleine Sackler follows the heated debate over charter schools in America. The film follows four children and their low-income families who live in Harlem and Bronx. The guardians of the children are attempting to get these kids into Harlem Success Academy, a charter school known for its great success in education. To get into a charter school, one must enter a lottery and get randomly selected to attend. They have no tuition fees and so getting accepted is highly competitive, as large amounts of students are entered in the lottery. The parents tell the stories of how their local public schools are very unsuccessful in the education department and often lead to kids later on in life to drop out and so they are hoping for a better education for them. It also follows the founder of the charter school and how she is trying to expand the schools more for low-income families and all the struggles she faces in attempting to do so. The charter school topic is a large debate there are many who are against it and many who for expanding the programs and the documentary shows this debate throughout the New York City school system. Through teachers unions and politicians, Sackler explains how the education system leaves out large amount of kids, especially those less fortunate.
The film clearly highlights injustice for children seeking the equal opportunity of education. Throughout this course we have talked about the concept “can the subaltern speak” by Spivak. Talking about how people who are seen as less because they have less. They are not given the same opportunities as those who might have more. This can be applied to The Lottery because we can see how the public school system is failing those who are less fortunate, not giving them the same opportunities at a quality education. Its deeply upsetting watching this film and seeing how these kids are not even given a chance to have a great education because of the situation they are in. All children should have equal opportunity at education and that is what Sackler attempts to show through her film.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor Swifts new album. It is a rework of her previous album Fearless that she released as a young girl in 2008. She rerecorded this album and named it Taylor’s version because she wanted control over her music as well as how her music was produced. In the past she was always instructed on what to do and had little say in the way her music was produced and how they were distributed. Taylor repeatedly states that this album was her taking back control of her music that she has lost over the years. Taylor swift’s music producers and the people she “trusted” were subalterns and did not allow her to have say in her own work. This relates to this class on a various amount of ways. They looked at her gender and used that as an excuse for mistreatment.
I think this example is one that closely correlates to a lot of things we learned in this class. I think Taylor’s career is a fantastic example of a single story. She is an artist who has been in the spotlight since she was a young girl and every boy seems to have an expectation from her and expect her to do certain things. As she got older we have seen how seen more into her life and seen how our misconceptions are extremely toxic and how we were quick to assume. We have also seen in her career that men have controlled her and treated her poorly. In the past year she has spoke up about this mistreatment and advocates through her music so that nobody else will have to deal with it as well. This album speaks to what we learned in class because it is an example of pursuing what you want while living your most authentic life.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with this movie, however if you are not I will provide a brief overview of the plot. Remember The Titans is a true story about a high school football team in Virginia during the 1970s, who became the first team in their conference to have not all white players, and even had an African American head coach. This takes place not long after the civil rights movement and as you can imagine tensions are very high within the team and the community. This movie has lots of examples of injustice as people were not treating the black players or coaches fairly. Referees were biased, the school set unrealistic standards for Coach Boone(the head coach), some local restaurants wouldn’t serve the players, and at first players were mistreating each other just because of race. If you’ve watched the movie you would know the team eventually comes together and rallies behind Coach Boone to form unbreakable bonds in the face of diversity and to finish with a perfect season. However there are still questions of injustice from this movie that can still apply today. Throughout the movie, white people were making unfair assumptions about black people and vice versa. We still unfortunately see this in society today, as people are quick to make assumptions about someone based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion etc. Identity was a major theme for this movie, as at first everyone had their own identity and were locked into their race, however by the end of the movie the team had one collective identity. I’m curious as to if we can learn from this team/movie and instead of having identity based on skin color, we can unite and have one collective identity. While individual qualities are important, it should be based on personality and not on how we look. To end, I think the point of this movie was to ask the basic question of why we judge people off the color of their skin, and is open to discussion on how we can solve this issue in the future.
Hi, my name is Mitchell Bachman I ‘m a second-year health science major. On this segment of Yo, is this injustice, I will be addressing several diary of systemic injustice posts that I have made, I will compare these to each other and how they relate back to this class.
The first injustice that I’d like to talk about is the unemployment rates between African Americans and white Americans. Over the last 15 years African Americans have had a higher unemployment rate than white Americans. From 2011 2019 and there’s a noticeable trend downward meaning that more people have jobs. However, there’s a large spike for both groups once the pandemic and hit. This is an example of a systemic injustice because it shows that African Americans are more likely to be unemployed which can lead to a number of things. Meaning that they’re unlikely able to purchase a house or the wants that they’d like to have in life. They’d only be able to purchase the necessities to survive. Unemployment rates are an example of the one-to-one concept, where white Americans are considered the one with a lower unemployment rate. Where African Americans are seen as the other because they have a high unemployment rate.
Alright, and then another injustice that I’d like to talk about would be income rates for African Americans and white Americans. From the shirt, we can see that white Americans make $18,000 more than African Americans in 2018. Since 2002 to 2018 on average white Americans have made at least $15,000 more than African Americans. It comes no surprise that African Americans are living in poverty because they cannot afford the housing that white Americans can afford. This is another picture that I want to talk about. It talks about the poverty rates. On this chart, we can see that the median household income in 2018 was $28,900 difference between the white Americans and African Americans and the poverty rate was 12.6% difference between the two. This has been a popular topic of discussion for quite some time, white and African Americans can have similar jobs, but they are not paid the same based on the color of your skin. There’s been a lot of social change over the years, however, African Americans have never received equal pay for the job that they have. This chart shows the trend of the constant difference in pay. I believe that this relates back to the master slave dialect topic that we talked about earlier in the semester. White Americans are the master and African Americans would be the slaves in this relationship. Meaning that white employees make more money, because they are valued more by companies that African Americans. One book that could relate to this type of interests, this would be Persepolis. In Persepolis, we were introduced to Mehri who was Marji’s family’s maid. In the story, we see that Mehri becomes infatuated with the neighbor boy. Marji then tells her family and when her father found out he went and talked to the neighbor boy. Marji ‘s Father tells him that Mary pretends she is my daughter, but in reality, she is my maid. Marji father tells Marji, that in their country, you must stay within your own social class. I believe that this relates to the income and poverty differences in America. Because the social class that you were born in is likely, the social class that you will stay in because of the unfair difference between white and African American income and poverty rates.
The next and justice that I’d like to talk about is healthcare. I found that African Americans do not receive the same health care that white Americans receive. African Americans experience illness at extremely high rates and have a lower life expectancy compared to other racial and ethnic groups. African Americans are also the most economically disadvantaged demographics in this country. I believe the African American have the lowest life expectancy because they are unable to pay for the proper care that they need. Which relates to African Americans not receiving equal pay as white Americans. Although most people have health insurance, 20% of African Americans have Medicaid which is for lower income, and the elderly, and disabled. Medicaid is a decent insurance for people who cannot afford private personal medical insurance, but they do not cover all medical expenses. It is extremely unjust to offer a necessary lifesaving service to someone only to have them declining it because of their insurance does not cover it and it would cost them too much to pay for it. I believe this is the example for one to the other topic that we talked about in class, ahh meaning that the whites are the one and they receive the best health care because they have a higher income rate. And African Americans are the other, because they do not receive equal care and do not receive that equal pay to pay for the proper medical care that they need.
The next topic for injustice that would like to mention is racial profiling. Over just over a year ago we experienced the black lives matter movement, which was protesting racial profiling among law enforcement. I’ve learned that 38% of all state prisoners are African American. African Americans are incarcerated at a rate that is 5.1 times greater than white Americans for someone to be arrested, they must have done something illegal, but there are instances were, this is not the case. African Americans face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police. There are still racist police in the world and profile all African Americans to be criminals. Although police brutality and arrest of African American has decrease over time there’s still exist an injustice in America to African Americans by law enforcement and I believe that this is another example of the one to the other because the white law enforcement is not fearful of white citizens and racist police officers are fearful of African Americans who are viewed as the other. And even viewed as criminals and thugs, which is the reason why they have been racially profiled by law enforcement.
The last injustice that I’d like to talk about is education, this is an injustice that is new to me, I have not personal experienced this, because I come from a small town and went to a small school. And I have found this fact on Ben and Jerry’s website, which is funny because they make ice cream, but it was on a page for systemic racism. And Ben and Jerry’s points out that 95% black children to constitute 18% of preschoolers nationwide and they make up for nearly 50% of suspensions. Now that fact is just for preschoolers saying that half of all preschoolers that are suspended are African Americans. Another interesting fact on Ben and Jerry’s was that among all age groups in school black students are three times more likely to be suspended then white students even when their infractions are similar. This is what I find the most surprising African American students are getting suspended three times the amount as white American students for similar infractions. That is not right! Children go to school to learn to get an education, but African American students get suspended for similar actions as white students. I believe that this shows the school system as prejudice and racist. And that there should be more action against this injustice. This has clearly been going on for a long time and it’s time to put an end to it. Again, I believe that this is an example of the one to other topic. White children or the one and African American children are the other. African American students are mistreated and suspended at a higher rate than the white children because they’re viewed as the other. As this continues on through school. It can lead to other problems for African American children. In reality, this could lead to problems.
That is all that I have on this segment of yo, is this injustice, I hope that you enjoyed it remember to like and subscribe for more content.
The graphic novel Persepolis is written by a French-Iranian author named Marjane Satrapi. Throughout this week’s reading, the audience had the opportunity to read about what life was like for a young Iranian woman and the people around her during the Islamic Revolution.
The Islamic Revolution
Before correlating other topics that we’ve discussed so far in this semester I thought that it would be important to know a little bit more information about what happened during the Islamic Revolution that changed the lives of many people. From 1941 to 1979, Iran was ruled by King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah whose dictatorship restricted political freedoms (Bender, 2020). “But he also he pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernization, allowing some degree of cultural freedom. Under the Shah’s rule, Iran’s economy and educational opportunities expanded.” (Bender 2020)
Afray (2021) stated:
Years later, Mohammad Reza Shah dismissed the parliament and launched the White Revolution—an aggressive modernization program that upended the wealth and influence of landowners and clerics, disrupted rural economies, led to rapid urbanization and Westernization, and prompted concerns over democracy and human rights. The program was economically successful, but the benefits were not distributed evenly, though the transformative effects on social norms and institutions were widely felt.
“The Islamic Revolution in 1979 was when Iran’s monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the revolution. During this time there were many strikes, protests, and violence in Iran and it was very hard on citizens including Satrapi. . . .many children felt lost and confused because of the division of beliefs between families. Some were supportive of the new government and some were still loyal to the Shah.” (“History of Persepolis,” 2011)
Correlation/Examples
As I was reading I noticed a few examples of different groups of people that would be labeled as a subaltern. In the past discussion post, I defined a subaltern as a person who is considered “lacking” in the eyes of the beholder. The first subaltern that I noticed was Mehri the maid, who liked a man in the neighborhood. On page 37 Marji’s father told her that their love is impossible in this country because of social class. Another example that displayed the poorer people as lacking was on page 102 it was assumed that younger children from poor families were recruited into the army promised a better life, but most if not all of them lost their lives. “After the change in government during the revolution, there were still many troops loyal to the Shah. These troops began to try and recruit young men to join their regime. This was difficult on families especially the mothers because they knew that the loyal Shah troops were risking the lives of these boys by promising them a wonderful afterlife.” (“History of Persepolis,” 2011) Satrapi explains how at this time of the Islamic Revolution there were many emotional and social obstacles for families. Women had many restrictions that belittled them as citizens. The leaders of Iran and most of the men believed women were second to them and disrespected them in many ways (“History of Persepolis,” 2011). On page 74 Marji’s mother had a disturbing encounter with a man who scarred her saying things along the lines of “if women did not wear veils they deserved to be r*ped.” Some women were threatened and even beaten if they were seen without wearing a veil, or if their attire did not meet a certain standard.
Bender, J. (2020, January 08). 25 photos show what Iran looked like before the 1979 Revolution turned the nation into an Islamic republic. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-before-the-revolution-in-photos-2015-4
History of Persepolis and The Islamic revolution. (2011, June 06). Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://satrapism.wordpress.com/history-of-persepolis/
Economic/social hierarchy is something we often see in big cities. People who live in the same city can have completely different lives because of how much money they have. In big cities there is often people on two side of the economic spectrum. Your economic and social status can give you entirely different life than someone who lives a couple streets over from you. According to the American Psychological Association the “class” you are can alter the way you act towards others and your overall happiness. They discuss how things such as money can be a major source of stress on people and those with less live under more stress. This goes to show you never know how someone is living right down the street from you.
In Toni Morrison’s Recitatif what I just discussed was shown between the relationship of Roberta and Twyla. On page 7 where they run into each other in their conversation alone you can see how different their lives are because of money. A particular instance that comes to mind is when Twyla references “smart IBM people” and “rich IBM crowd”. She is referring to them as somehow superior to her because of social and economic status. When she runs into Roberta to describe where she is at in her life right now, she’s describes her as someone most likely to be associated with IBM. These two girls grew up together in the same exact position, in the same place yet their futures are so different. Another way the two are different are because of their marriages and the way they are with their kids. This reading is a great example of how you can live in the same city as someone, grow up with them and end up in very different places in life. The way Twyla and Roberta describe their life and the tone of their words there is a clear and concise difference on how the two view the world.
Bloomberg.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-24/class-divided-cities-new-york-edition
DeAngelis, T. (2015, February). Class differences. Retrieved February 07, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/02/class-differences
Hello and welcome to the class blog for Section Finver! Though you will mostly be participating in small groups of 14-15 students in your discussion posts on Carmen, on the blog, all 60 students in Section Finver will be posting here. When we start posting Context Presentations, you will be welcome to comment on anyone’s post, even if they are not from your usual small group.
For now, please comment on this post with your favorite dance move (and keep it appropriate; this is a public blog!). For your edification, my favorite move is Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, though I’ve never been able to do it successfully.
