Author: Isabella Aviles

Text Review Assignment · Gladiator

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The 2000 historical drama Gladiator features interactions between people of different identities and social classes. The movie illustrates many topics we have discussed in class related to power dynamics explained by Hegel and Spivak. Gladiator’s plot demonstrates how easily injustice can be brought about by figures who inherit power but do not possess a strong, respectable character as seen in Hegel’s idea of the “Master”, where the master’s fundamental nature thwarts their capability to realize and transcend their own reality.

Within Gladiator, the current emperor, Marcus Aurelius, tries to restore Rome’s prior glory and republic by selecting General Maximus Meridius to succeed him in place of his biological son, Commodus. When Commodus discovers his father’s plan, he kills Marcus, orders the arrest of Maximus, and orders the killing of Maximus’ wife and son. Commodus is not a legatus, he carries a very weak disposition, and does not display much care for Rome. The control Commodus demands to have over situations highlights his unbridled fears and insecurities, where Maximus is one of Commodus’ central fears and eventually becomes his primary fear. Maximus escapes captivity, traverses a desert, is captured again, and is trained to be a gladiator as a slave. Maximus also reflects Hegel’s characterization of the “Slave” by gaining popularity, glory, and wisdom through his work over time.

In the background, the deterioration of the fictional Roman Empire portrayed under Commodus’ rule is an important part of understanding how Maximus ends up gaining power over Commodus through the relationship he establishes with the people. Maximus remains earnestly remembered in contrast to how people react to Commodus once they realize his true personality and motivations. Spivak’s hierarchy and illustration of how the “Subject group” silences the lower ranking groups directly relates to the lack of communication, secrets, and lack of mobility Maximus has throughout most of the movie. The movie would have been no longer than a few minutes if Maximus had the resources to prove he was falsely accused.

I think the writers—David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson—intended to demonstrate how character is ultimately more powerful than agency. How Maximus treated the army he managed, the friends he made as a slave, and how he catered to his fans as a gladiator outweighs the jealousy and acts of violence committed by Commodus. How one treats people is more noticeable than what they own or what can be controlled in their favor. I would recommend Gladiator to anyone in class who wants to view an example of societal injustices connected to the ideas expressed by Hegel, Spivak, Ahmad, and additional figures we have studied throughout the semester who examine the relationship between power and identity.

“Yo, is this Classist?” Advice Column

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Classism is another branch of humanity’s basic, neural discrimination processes which has bled into our social landscape and evolved to become one of the most prevalent aspects of many societies around the world. In general, classism was inherently established to delegate the different degrees to which different people could access power, and to efficiently evaluate any individual’s public worth under a unified framework. How classism is detailed and elaborated on evidently varies between countries and different modes of governance. What do you believe makes you valuable, compared to your value generated by the niche set of classist beliefs in your society? Some people may have distinct answers, while others may not be able to find a single difference between both answers because personal principle is the ultimate driver of how classism is interpreted. Classism within the United States and how American culture has amplified prejudice will be the sole focus here. To briefly address the audience who believes classism is pure evil: classes have existed for centuries, and based on the fundamentals of the surviving societies which have prioritized freedom throughout history, there will always be the rich, the poor, and a middle. In reality, each group falls on a spectrum which is weighted differently at each point. What is concerning is how we treat this trifecta and how each major class fluctuates over time relative to the health of citizens and their economy.

In 2021, national and local events, in person and online, suggest classism is present and will remain strong in the United States. However, some ornaments of classism have diminished—we have become too advanced to simply point to an individual based on their fashion choice or physical health status and rule them out as part of the elite. Events tied to contemporary classism that have taken place in 2021 predominantly fall under two main themes: consumerism and racism.

Multiple industries across the nation come together to feed American consumerism daily, with airtight scheduling and planning the rotation of products sometimes multiple years in advance. Given Americans have expedited access to every basic good under the sun to fulfill a need for survival, businesses now rely on personal branding, private community, and exclusivism to sell the latest products. Social media has also become the golden avenue for stimulating classism which the marketing sector depends on to promote a specific lifestyle. For instance, simple celebrity endorsements have existed for a while, but social media allows direct celebrity-consumer interactions to take place where advertisements now take the form of “being part of that celebrity’s public social circle or club” if you buy, and if you don’t buy, you may be lesser than in your personal social circle or may be plagued by a “fear of missing out”. Online platforms are notorious for amplifying certain mental illnesses and other social phenomena in the 21st century which includes classism. The implicit message delivered from the online publicity culture, especially among Millennial and Gen Z circles, involves the idea that being poor is simply not an option. To find recognition and remain popular, the average population is willing to exchange their original life goals in pursuit of a social dream born out of the current culture. Not everyone makes it, some put themselves in dire financial holes, others go bankrupt, but this form of fame, which arguably leads the least promising legacy, is what Gen Z and Gen Alpha children are aspiring to become. When did ‘famous’ and ‘rich’ become a job? New age classism has ultimately changed the way people think about their purpose in life: more individuals desire to make a big splash in the ocean rather than shift the direction of the overall tide and look at how they could enact long-term change within society based on their personal ambition. In tandem, hustle culture is another reflection of the presence of classism as people strive to incessantly work their way into the top 10%, 1%, or 0.1% instead of taking the real route to wealth, which is to provide a solution for a large-scale, prevailing issue.

The second theme, racism, is another idea that has been used to bolster the real proponents of classism and capitalism within the dominant cultures of 2021. Racism is a very severe term, similar to the word hate, and should be used as such. Racism exists everywhere in the world including the U.S., and to say racism does not exist is as ridiculous as saying crime does not exist and crimes occur nowhere. Looking back a few hundred years, we have made clear social progress where overt racism and racial violence has significantly diminished, some efforts have started to work. Racism will not completely vanish into thin air, even though many who are part of the more privileged U.S. population believe it will. I would love for certain things in this world to completely disappear, but I cannot spend time whining about imaginary things I want that defy human nature. A new tactic has been practiced in recent years where social perpetrators intentionally gain attention, falsely crowdsource, and ultimately generate revenue from orchestrated havoc surrounding race. For example, in class we discussed identity and intersectionality, and in one section of our discussion I mentioned Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics” which introduces a new perspective of the law, and is made available for anyone to read. However, the media and other major U.S. institutions have misused Crenshaw’s work and have tried to introduce parts of it into unrelated conversations that have no contextual relationship with the reasoning within this piece of writing. Social media is a prime place where people make gross claims about the current state of the U.S. who never have read Dr. Crenshaw or other authors’ work related to race, sex, or general U.S. history. The same people will attempt to tie research they never carried out into their personal commentary. TikTok is a great place to visit if you want to learn nothing. When considering national news and other media sources where speakers must be invited, why do we allow these hand picked speakers to publicly speak out of turn? How will we discern experts from everyone else in the future? Per classism? As a female, person of color, I truly believe that if I was part of the upper echelon of American society right now, went on the air of a major media outlet, and claimed racism or capitalism was rampant in the U.S., most viewers watching would not question me because I have status and I just happened to have the right phenotype, supported popular ideology, and said it at the right time. The folks who comprise the craftier portion of our population have honed and carved racism into a tool, so the majority of the population doesn’t see the back end of institutional processes being run and whipped into shape by the elite. On a capitalist side note, the billionaires who support socialism to the millionaires who claim money is evil or “the great divider” in the United States should be silenced, not shushed. If your opinion on classism, racism, or capitalism does not match your personal history and you provide no explanation to try and rectify the contrast, you should not be allowed in front of a media source camera. Let’s say all you knew about me was that I spoke superior Spanish, with unparalleled fluency, but then I gave a speech on why Spanish teachers should be outlawed in the U.S., what sense does this make? Suddenly, the village of people who taught me Spanish and granted me excellent opportunities to speak with native speakers do not matter anymore? All billionaires in the U.S. care about capitalism to a certain extent and were mentored by people who have considered capitalism, or else they would have liquidated everything, sacrificed their businesses or respective industries, and would have given most of their assets away based on their extreme language used in public and in protest. Social and fiscal objectives do not overlap, I cannot wish to be the richest woman in America and wish socialism upon everyone else to live out the tresses of ultimate equality just so I feel better. Boundaries must be defined. Vague, extreme statements need to come to an end or else these racial and anti-capitalist narratives become intentional disillusionment. For example, do white supremacists exist in the United States? Yes. At the same time, do public messages exist that insinuate all people who fall in the White race category are supremacists? Yes, extreme communication is not only inaccurate but dangerous. When extreme language is used outside a state of emergency, it is harmful. Looking to the broader notion of classes again, real socialists need to recognize all the concerning elements that arise in attempts to merge different levels of a complex, developed society into one level. If actually carried out, a mass, socioeconomic class merger would take years and would impact the organization of every major system in the country. Socialists must understand they would not be able to leave their favorite institutions intact and completely overhaul their least favorite institutions simultaneously within the framework of socialism.

To resolve the social discrimination, exploitation, and prejudices that come with classism at times, the freedom and protection of all citizens must be strictly maintained. In 2020 and into present day, national adherence to freedom did not happen with regards to COVID. Mask and vaccine mandates varied drastically between social classes. Mask violation fines varied between socioeconomic classes. Classism seems to become most prevalent during slightly more stressful times, or when everyone is in an outright state of emergency. Essential workers truly endured the impact of COVID which had profound effects on their lifestyles and mental health. COVID-19 related suicides in hospitals occurred in countries around the world, including the United States (Rahman and Plummer). In stark contrast, the lives of upper-class individuals remained infinitesimally altered, some even experienced a further enhanced lifestyle from 2020 bull markets and ROIs.

Classism will remain in the United States regardless of new cultural waves. As people continue to stray away from traditional capitalism, classism may continue to covertly worsen and simply take on a new definition to fit the dominant, social setting of the era. The key takeaway is that social distinctions will always be around, but cannot be abused. Divisions will exist, but society has the power to determine how large those divisions become.

 

 

Works Cited

Rahman, Ashikur, and Virginia Plummer. “Covid-19 Related Suicide among Hospital Nurses; Case Study Evidence from Worldwide Media Reports.” Psychiatry Research, Elsevier B.V., Sept. 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7331553/.

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: Media Coverage

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     A critical systemic injustice in my daily life and explained by outside research is how United States citizens no longer have a source of national news to depend on that remains completely unsullied by politics. Long after 1788, politicians have achieved their goal of metamorphosing into actors, while Washington, D.C. has become the theater—a newfound source of embarrassing entertainment rather than a place wrought with wisdom to serve the people in peripheral and reasonable ways. The population being served is no longer center stage. People deserve national information that reports on what is happening in the country rather than what should happen or what ‘experts’ speculate to happen. Americans deserve some media that strictly covers actions, not extremely subjective personal observation or opinion, we already have enough blogs masked as news. In 2019, a news agency and market research company collaborated and found 44% of their roughly 1,541 poll responders had “hardly any confidence at all” in the press (Ipsos Public Affairs). More polls should be conducted at a larger scale with a similar purpose. I distinguished the lack of integrity within American media as a systemic injustice because major media institutions continue to directly impact how millions of citizens treat the systems which hold the logistical framework of the country together. How public information is disseminated should be considered as important as a human life because misleading, widespread information has lead to mental health impairments and has driven more susceptible, misguided souls to commit suicide in some cases. Just as you are technically not supposed to be in it for the money as a physician, you’re also not supposed to be in it for the money as the Chair of a journal, magazine, news, or social media company. Unfortunately, the most popular forms of modern American culture have tethered peoples’ choices to technology at concerning degrees, allowing media sources to warp how people think about power, identity, and injustice. 

     This issue of Truth is also a self-inflicted injustice because all the tools required to correct ourselves are already at our disposal. Is there a way for us to maintain politics and its benefits without all the dramatic acts? What would need to change for this wrong to be righted is a change in the current education system and for adults to have faith in their ability to shape the younger generation wisely. When children are educated, they are also being conditioned to critically think or not. “We are living in the age of… disappointment. Millennials and members of Gen Z have grown up… knowing nothing else. In the U.S. and elsewhere, this has produced a crisis of faith, across society but especially among the young. It has produced a crisis of trust” (Brooks). If the self-proclaimed ‘most powerful nation in the world’ ends up like the Roman Empire, the United States should at least collapse with grace over an issue more dignifying than incompetence.

 

Linked below is a video elaborating on the press poll conducted by Ipsos for Reuters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PflE6yIGtlQ

 

Works Cited

Brooks, David. “America Is Having a Moral Convulsion.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 5 Oct. 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/collapsing-levels-trust-are-devastating-america/616581/. 

Ipsos Public Affairs. Ipsos Poll Conducted for Reuters Core Political Data. 15 May 2021, https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/Core%20Political-Topline-2017-05-17.pdf. 

Reuters and Ipsos. “New polling shows continued erosion of trust in mainstream media outlets.” YouTube, uploaded by The Hill, 1 March 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PflE6yIGtlQ.

Week 11 Context Presentation: Lisa Ko’s The Leavers, Part II

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Lisa Ko highlights how the transracial adoption of children contributes to a “liberal racism” seen in contemporary America, where U.S.-born children are displaced from their original culture and families while their undocumented, immigrant mothers are ostracized in society (Ko). The second half of The Leavers elaborates on Peilan’s life from her perspective which maximizes her voice and further complicates her character since her introduction in the first half of the novel. Unlike Deming, who is named Daniel by his adoptive parents and has less agency, Peilan chooses the name Polly in an attempt to fit into the new, dominant culture that impacts her life.

Currently there is a flawed adoption and detainment process in the United States for children of undocumented or deported parents. Despite the end of the former “zero-tolerance” plan, children still remain in detention centers in addition to foster care who may not be eligible for reunification or release (Burke and Mendoza). Welfare agencies are also brought into the situation when the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tries to establish a plan for children of undocumented parents who are no longer in the United States, further complicating the care of the child (Burke and Mendoza). Language barriers are taken advantage of throughout the separation process as well. In 2018, Central American parents were “coerced into signing paperwork they did not understand, affecting their rights to reunify with their children”(Burke and Mendoza). A plethora of issues arise when children are separated from their parents, regardless of whether they are U.S. citizens or not because multiple U.S. institutions must come together to resolve the child’s case and must remain actively involved under the current system, or else the case is forgotten.

In the second half of The Leavers, Peilan elaborates on the cultural differences between her generation and Deming’s generation, the racial discrimination she faced, and her personal restlessness over the decisions she has made throughout her life. Still today, Asian Americans are seen as “model minorities” or “perpetual foreigners” a narrative their second-generation children are discovering which Ko explains through Peilan’s character (Pan). As The Leavers progresses, Peilan and Deming’s relationship is revitalized when she receives a call from Deming and they remain in contact. Ko explains how their relationship as mother and son are complicated by various places and identities over time despite Peilan leaving in the beginning. The Leavers illustrates how place can strengthen, fracture, or complicate connections between family and why it is important to remain cognizant of migration and contested citizenship processes used in the U.S. today.

 

Works Cited

Burke, Garance, and Martha Mendoza. “AP Investigation: Deported Parents May Lose Kids to Adoption.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 9 Oct. 2018, https://apnews.com/article/immigration-us-news-ap-top-news-international-news-arrests-97b06cede0c149c492bf25a48cb6c26f. 

Ko, Lisa. Interview by Barbara Kingsolver. Algonquin Books, 2017, http://lisa-ko.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kingsolverinterview.pdf

Pan, Deanna. “Young Asian Americans Struggle to Get Immigrant Parents to Open up about a Painful Issue: Racism – The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 6 July 2021, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/05/metro/young-asian-americans-struggle-get-immigrant-parents-open-up-about-painful-issue-racism/.