Author: bloch.47

Text Review Assignment- Brooklyn Nine Nine

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Brooklyn Nine Nine is a comedy TV show about a group of detectives working at the 99th precinct in the NYPD. The show consists of 9 main characters, all with different backgrounds and personal lives. The main plot of the show is just watching the lives of all of these detectives, over several years while they solve numerous cases. It appears as just a normal detective show with every character having their own personal goals and development throughout the 8 seasons. Although what makes this show interesting, is that unlike most cop shows, this is a comedy, so almost every situation they get into has a lighter  feeling and makes it more enjoyable to watch in my opinion.

Identity and power are present almost throughout the entire show. To start, every character has their own identity and the struggles the face with it. For example, Captain Holt (captain of the squad) was the NYPD’s first openly gay detective and also happens to be African American. Another character, Rosa Diaz, comes out as bi, only to face backlash from her parents, especially her mom. Throughout the show, each characters’ identity comes into play and affects the decisions they make throughout the plot. The last season of the show, dives into power and injustice in much greater detail. The last season was filmed in 2020 and was finished up in 2021, and while it is a comedy, the show still writes episodes that involve issues such as police injustice and police reform. Diaz actually ends up leaving the force, to become a PI and to investigate instances of police brutality. This show definitely relates to part of the class. For example, two of the detectives, Hitchcock and Skully are viewed as the older detectives that are “useless” and are very much othered throughout the entire show. Furthermore, some of the other struggles with Othering, comes when Captain hold is up for the position of Commissioner, but is essentially blackballed for being an openly gay, black detective now Captain. Another idea that we’ve talked about in class, is the idea of your identity, what it means to you, and how others may only see a certain side. Part of what makes the plot interesting, is because characters are often tasked with sticking true to their identity, or making a decision based off of personal gain. Also, through the relationships of all these detectives, they learn to understand and get a deeper meaning to everyone’s identity.

Overall I think the writers of the show wanted to address relevant social issues throughout the show while providing a bit of comedic relief on some of these topics. Furthermore, I think they just want to give us another workplace dynamic for the audience to love.

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase

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For this entire country’s history, racism and the struggle between races has always been an issue. One issue we see today is the systemic injustice in the healthcare system, and the impact it has on the African American community. The first article discusses a study that was completed with ~2,200 Covid patients in Michigan 60 days after they had been released from the hospital. The point of this observation was to see what their experiences were after getting released and how they adjusted back to working. The study showed that 50% of black patients were readmitted to the hospital within 60 days of them being released while 65% of black patients experienced severe negative financial impacts. Furthermore, on average, it took black patients 35.5 days to return to work, which was the longest out of any racial group (1). This example only highlights an inequality in our healthcare system that exists between African Americans and everyone else. Jamila Taylor, author of the second article, outlines several examples of how these inequalities exist. One of the first ones, is with insurance and how 4.3% more of African Americans are uninsured compared to their white counterparts (2). There are also discrepancies between maternal mortality rates, infant mortality rates (twice that of whites) (2). Overall, there different ways to show how African Americans are treated differently and less equal in the U.S. healthcare system. Part of this is due to location. In regions that are predominantly black or hispanic, “they are less likely to have access to hospitals and other healthcare providers, and if they do, they are more often lower quality” (2).

One of the biggest themes we’ve talked about in class that I think this relates to the closest, is the theory of Othering. It appears to me that depending on if you are the One vs the Other, you receive a different level of healthcare. To me this is something that needs to be fixed. I don’t entirely know where I stand on universal healthcare, but I do believe that everyone deserves the right to the healthcare they need, and should have the access to seek this treatment. One of the reasons I think we see these disparities is because of the connection between insurance companies and healthcare. As noted above there is a difference in the amount of each population that is insured, but I also think there is a difference in the quality of this insurance. While insurance companies can be in the private sector, I think they hold enough of a bigger-picture impact that makes this a systemic injustice.

Covid-19 lays bare how racism fuels health disparities among Black people

(1) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-covid-patients-receive-fewer-medical-follow-ups-study-shows-rcna2774

(2) https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?session=1

Context Presentation Week 12: Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

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Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies mainly takes place in India. Looking back into the history of India and you cannot miss looking at the history of partition of India and Pakistan which took place on August 15, 1947 (2). After hundreds of years being ruled and controlled by the British Empire, which “simply had no resources after the second World War to control its greatest imperial asset” (2). The partition and removal of British forces was anything from clean and simply however. The two new states, Hindu-majority India and the Muslim-majority Pakistan, had roughly 14 million refugees between the two, in the wrong nation (2). Many families left everything they had to join in a mass migration of people that had yet to be seen before. Unfortunately, many of these people did not complete the journey as after hundreds of years of peace between the two cultures had ended and violence erupted.

This violence that erupted resulted in the loss of 1 to 2 million people. Everything from massacres to arson to rape had occurred as there was damage way past the millions of people that were killed during. Approximately 75,000 women were raped and most of them left disfigured or dismembered after (1). To help understand the lasting effect that this had, even decades later, William Dalrymyple made the comparison  “partition is central to modern identity in the Indian subcontinent, as the Holocaust is to identity among Jews, branded painfully onto the regional consciousness by memories of almost unimaginable violence What took place throughout the partition and these mass migrations had a lasting cultural impact on the two sides. After seemingly being able to live amongst one another and at peace, have become so polarized it makes it hard to believe that peace was ever present. Below I have included some images to help show the true masses that were affected by this.

Everything changed': readers' stories of India's partition | India | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/everything-changed-readers-stories-of-india-partition

The Bloody Legacy of Indian Partition | The New Yorker

(1) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple

(2) https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/about/1947-partition-of-india-pakistan