Author: wilkinson.334

Text Review: All American Season 1

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All American is a very popular TV show based on the true story of Spencer Paysinger (Spencer James in the show), a star African American football player from Crenshaw who gets recruited to go play at Beverly Hills because of his talent. He moves in with Billy Baker, the coach at Beverly, and the rest of his family. He goes through many different changes throughout the show and faces a number of injustices, as do some of the other characters. For example, there is a scene in episode 3 where Jordan (Billy’s son) and Spencer are in Crenshaw, and get pulled over. Jordan immediately began questioning the cops and saying that he didn’t do anything wrong. The cop forced him to get out of the car, then he handcuffed him and threw him on the ground. Spencer kept telling Jordan to do what the cop said, but Jordan was not listening. Eventually, they made Spencer get out of the car too. Jordan looked very scared and didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but Spencer tells him, “just keep looking at me.” This is because he is from a rich family in Beverly Hills, so he has never had to experience the injustice that Spencer has had to go through while living in Crenshaw. These cops were obviously “othering” Jordan and Spencer for their skin color, and this scene just goes to show how different Jordan and Spencer’s childhoods were, even though they are both African American.

Just Sha

After moving to Beverly Hills, many people from Crenshaw were not too pleased, and thought that he was trying to get out of their corrupt community. However, Spencer was always attempting to make a difference in Crenshaw’s community, which just adds more to his character. He always saw Crenshaw as his home and never strayed from that. He even returns to Crenshaw in season 3 for his senior year. Overall, this show does an amazing job at depicting a number of injustices throughout the show, and this scene was just one of the many.

Blog Presentation, Week 13 City of Lahore

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Lahore, Pakistan, where the main character of the novel is from, is “the second largest city of Pakistan, ancient capital of the Punjab, home to nearly as many people as New York, layered like a sedimentary plain with the accreted history of invaders from the Aryans to the Mongols to the British” (Hamid 7). At the beginning of the story, the main character is “othered” by the man giving him an interview in America after he tells him that he is from Lahore. However, the main character mentions that he is actually far from poor, and this sparked my interest in learning more about what this Pakistani city is like.

Pakistan is an underdeveloped and impoverished country, and has suffered from decades of low levels of foreign investment, political disputes, and a very costly and long going confrontation with India. However, Lahore is one of the wealthiest cities in Pakistan, and has multiple districts. People often call it the “Heart of Pakistan”, because of its importance in the creation of Pakistan, and for being a cultural, educational, and political center of the country. It is the largest and most populous province of Pakistan, and has the most developed communications infrastructure. In addition to that, it is the education capital of Pakistan, and has the largest number of educational institutions in the country.

According to the 1998 census, 93.9 percent of the population in Lahore in Muslim, which is 50.1 percent higher compared to 1941. Other religions include Christians (5.8 percent) and Ahmadis (.2 percent), as well as a small number of Hindus, Bahais, Sikhs, and Parsis. There are a large number of shrines, mosques, temples, and churches across the city. So overall, Lahore seems to be a diverse, wealthy, and important city in Pakistan, and is full of Pakistani culture.

“Lahore.” Lahore – New World Encyclopedia, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Lahore.

“Historical Background.” Historical Background | Punjab Portal, https://www.punjab.gov.pk/lahore_historical_background#:~:text=The%20origin%20of%20Lahore%20can,between%202nd%20and%204th%20centuries.

Hamid, Mohsin, and Rudolph F. Rau. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Diesterweg, 2007.

DSI Showcase – Texas Abortion Law

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Something that has really been catching my attention recently is the new law in Texas regarding abortion. This law empowers private citizens to sue anyone that they suspect of providing or aiding an abortion. This includes anyone from clinic employees to counselors to doctors to anyone involved in transporting someone to obtain an abortion. Many people worry that this law may be somehow targeting people of color, according to an article in the 19th News.

Data from 2014 shows that people of color added up to about 62 percent of abortions that year. African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos are also disproportionately affected by hardships financially. This means that they may not have as many resources or flexibility to leave Texas for a legal abortion. These factors show that people of color are now most likely living in fear on how this new law can be used against them, and some believe that this law is a tool to threaten and harass individuals. Research indicates that Black and Latino families are more likely to be investigated and reported by child protective services, and this just goes to show how much targeted surveillance and violence continues even today.

Since this new law, there have been websites allowing people to anonymously report doctors, clinics, etc. that have been suspected of helping with abortions. These websites have since been removed for violating privacy guidelines, but it portrays what the future of Texas’s restrictions may look like if this law remains in place. Someone who successfully sues someone over an abortion is awarded at least $10,000 and gets their legal fees reimbursed. As a result, abortion providers now deny care to anyone over 6 weeks pregnant. Since Native Americans and Latinos are more likely to be investigated, this instills even more fear upon them.

Another big issue with this new law is that it can create an environment of fear for pregnant women and the people they interact with. This is because many of these women are scared to talk about their needs with their loved ones, because they may fear that they do not have the same opinion as them. This sort of goes along with the “othering” theory because these women who want or need abortions may be judged or even sued for doing so.

All these things show that law is definitely systemic injustice, not only for people of color, but also anyone who is in need of an abortion. I do not think that this law should stay in place because women should be able to have an abortion without the fear of getting sued. Also, people are going to have abortions either way, even if it was illegal.

https://19thnews.org/2021/09/texas-abortion-law-people-of-color/