Posts

What I want to share today is a movie called The Hangover. The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and produced by Phillips and Daniel Goldberg, starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, and Jeffrey Tambor. In The Hangover trilogy, I mainly want to talk about the third installment. Although this film is mainly comedy, it also contains some kind of encounter between people of different cultures or identities. In the third installment, there is an important role called Zhou. Different from the first two films, the third one is not drunk, and there is no need to piece together memories, but it is also because of the first drunkenness that the gang will get into trouble. Poor Doug was taken hostage. Stu, Phil and Allen’s task was to find Zhou who robbed the gang boss’s gold bars, and to find the robbed gold bars before Doug could be rescued. I think this work can find some examples related to the racial stereotypes studied this semester. Zhou, an Asian character, is very cunning and clever. The three of them were fooled by Zhou and nearly lost their lives. Considering that there are some stories in Thailand in in The Hangover trilogy, I think creator wants to add some “foreign elements” to this American film. On the other hand, Zhou can also show some characteristics of migrants. Zhou doesn’t have a legal identity, so he gets a lot of money by stealing and cheating, and then lead a life of luxury and debauchery. I think one of the reasons is that it is difficult for people without formal status to get enough money legally. Of course, I think this is correct. People like Zhou will easily cause harm to society and citizens. After these people with different identities encounter, the audience can clearly find their differences. Stu, Phil and Allen seem very simple, because they all grew up in a very peaceful and stable environment and have several close friends around them. Zhou, the lone character, is decisive and shrewd. I think this is related to his experience of wandering around all the year round. It occurs to me that one’s behavior and ideology are easily influenced by the outside world. Not only the origin or race, but also the friends around you and the life you experience often determine what kind of person you are going to be. This is all my book reviews, thank you!

Work Cited

https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hangover

The Netflix series Jane the Virgin, is a show that focuses on the life of a family of latina women. While it is a comedy and romance show, it also shows their struggles of being a minority living in a white community. The family lives in a part of Miami, Florida that is a predominantly white area, and most of the other characters in the show are white. The main topic that this show, especially season four, shows is their struggles with immigration laws. Up until season four of the show, the grandmother was not a legal citizen in the United States. She did not have a green card, and therefore was living illegally. All throughout her life she was scared to do anything that would get her seen by too many people, and was very cautious. In season four, she applied for a green card. Once she got it, she was able to take her citizenship test and become a legal citizen. On top of that situation, she was being discriminated against and constantly being “Othered” on the daily. For example, she primarily spoke Spanish and could not speak English without a heavy accent. One of the customers at the place she worked at called her out and told her to go back to her own country. In this situation, the grandmother character is seen as being “Othered”. She is being treated and seen as someone inferior or less of a person. This was a very hard situation for the character, and represents how people of latino descent are treated in the world today. Another example of this character being “Othered”, is the lengths that she went to in order to become a citizen. It took months of work, many appointments, and a lot of legal meetings in order to schedule a day for the test. If she were to miss that test, it would take a long time for her to make it up. For example, in one scene, the grandmother goes to take her test but is late because of her daughter’s cancer complications. The legal workers almost did not let her take her test because she was one minute late. In the end, they allowed her to take the test and she passed. This scene shows how the government do not help with the discrimination against the minorites, and also make it extremely hard for them to become a citizen of the country. They are constantly being “Othered” and treated as less than everyone else. This show inspires a conversation about power and identity between the government and the immigrants in America. The government clearly has power over the immigrants and makes it hard for them to become a part of the country. Overall, the show Jane the Virgin represents the hardships that immigrants face when it comes to power and identity in the world today.

I am writing about “The Wonder Years” which was a show revamped from the 1988, but is now a show with a black family living in the 1960’s.  This show shows how a black family has to face many challenges during this era and how they lived and overcame anything that they were faced with and a little comedy as well.

The episode I am talking about it called “Workplace”, where the parents had to take your child to work day. Well, the father took the son to work, and his father is a musician, and the son was very excited but continue to interrupt the recording sessions with his dream of being a musician. So, the son had to go to work with his mother who is an account executive at the US treasury. His mother is the only black woman who is an account executive and the only one who has a master’s degree. Her son thought that his mother’s job was boring but not knowing all she did and how important she was to the company. But he soon learned that she was very important. During, the day he saw how his mother found a discrepancy in one of the accounts that needed to be fixed. She approached one of the other accountants and told them that they made and error and was suggesting to him how to fix the item, but he didn’t want to listen to her until another associate who was a man and black came in to assist and they listen to what she said and what to do to fix the problem to balance the books. Next, this same accountant that didn’t want to listen to her approached her not to thank her for the help but to ask her did she make the cupcakes because she has that “down home cooking skills” because she was black.  Next, situation her boss came in her office to tell her about the mistake she already found, but she turned around and told him how to fix the mistake but instead of him giving her a thanks or good idea he took the information that she told him and made it his own idea. After that she and her son went to lunch and the secretaries was in the lunchroom who were white tried not to talk to her or be in the same room with her because of the color of her skin and the other accountants who are all men did not want to eat with her because she was a woman. But her son seen how important she was and that she did a lot for this firm, and nobody appreciated her, but he was proud of his mother and made him want to strive higher and get his master’s degree like his mother.

The moral of this story is no matter how educated you are people still won’t see you potential. This character had two things against her that she was black and a woman in the 1960’s.  Although she had more education than anyone in that office and she should have been the boss they still seen her as a woman who they shouldn’t listen to and a black maid or a non-factor in the firm. But she was the backbone of the office and they needed her whether they realized it or not. She basically ran the office without them knowing and, but they never respected her or gave her the appreciation that she deserves.

The text I would like to examine is the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Although this story was originated from a book, I have never read the book and would therefore like to speak on the Hulu original series. This show is about two mothers of different races who have extremely different parenting styles. Elena, portrayed by Reese Witherspoon, is a wealthy white mom who struggles with one of her daughters being lesbian and another one of her daughters dating a black man. Elena likes to be seen as perfect and having it all together so when her daughters do something that she perceives as imperfect, she tries to protect her own image instead of caring for her child. Meanwhile, Mia, portrayed by Kerry Washington, cares for her daughter in a different way and ends up supporting Elena’s daughter better than Elena does.

While watching this show, I can’t help but think of Hegel’s master slave dialect. I think about how the master would not be the master without the slave so in a certain sense, the slave is the master of the master. In Little Fires Everywhere, Elena likes to think that she is the master of the whole town of Shaker Heights. However, when Mia and her daughter move in, Elena is challenged and Mia makes Elena know that she has a lot less power than she thinks she has. It starts with Mia questioning her parenting and then turns into her children and husband rebelling over her. Elena loses her power. The people she had power over (slaves) began to rule her.

This story shows a lot of inequality including race and sexuality. It shows how people have a set perspective and highlights microaggressions that many people watching the show are guilty of. It shows that listening, sympathy, and understanding are the keys to understanding people different of yourself and we can see how that starts to change Elena… until her house burns down.

I watched this show with my parents while we were stuck in quarantine and it brought up a lot of conversations about race and sexuality that we had never had before. This show proves that many systemic thoughts of inequality stem from our neighborhoods and families. Did this show bring up any conversation with your family or friends about racist microagression and other inequalities in your hometowns?

The book I chose to review is The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas. This story follows Starr Carter, a sixteen year old black girl, who witnesses her black friend, Khalil, get shot and murdered by police. The Hate U Give is about her struggle with police brutality, activism and racism after this traumatic event. Khalil’s shooting is the first major example of injustice in the story as he was unarmed, defenseless and was causing no threat to the policeman who shot him so it’s obvious it was because of the color of his skin. Racial injustice continues to be shown throughout this novel as the government and media try to cover up Khalil’s death by portraying him as a drug dealer instead of trying to bring him justice. The jury ultimately ends up not charging the policeman, who was white, even after Starr testifies. This leads the Garden Heights community to try to peacefully protest, which ends up quickly turning violent, to show their frustration towards their criminal justice system failing them. I think that this story is the perfect example and depicts injustice towards black people and other minorities in today’s society very realistically. In this case I believe Starr, Khalil and other black people in the Garden Heights community are considered the “Other” because they are treated as lesser and constantly faced with racism. I also think identity plays a strong role in The Hate U Give. Starr struggles to balance her life at her mostly-white school, Williamson and her Garden Heights life. She is afraid that people at her school will think she is too “hood” and that people in Garden Heights will think that she thinks she is better than them. Starr feels that she cannot be herself and that she can not have both aspects of these identities in her life. Throughout the story Starr learns that she does not need to hide who she really is and that she can belong in both communities at the same time. Overall I think that The Hate U Give is a great story for this class because it represents many of the topics we have discussed in this class such as injustice and identity.

       The medium I chose for the text review assignment is the tv series on Netflix called In the Dark. The main character in the tv show is Murphy, who is blind. Murphy copes with her daily struggles through drinking and hookups. Murphy’s life is turned upside down one night when she feels her best friend, Tysons, body dead in an alleyway. She is convinced that this is her best friend Tyson, but when she goes to the cops, the body has been moved, therefore the cops cannot make a case. Friends, family, and cops question what if the body was truly Tysons lifeless body, therefore Murphy tries to solve the question of what happened to Tyson mostly by herself. 

       Because Murphy is blind, she constantly feels “othered” by the people around her. The cops do not believe that it was Tyson’s body because she is blind, so how would she know, but Murphy felt his face, therefore she is confident that it was him. Furthermore, Murphy struggles with her new boyfriend feeling suffocated as he wants to help her with everything, which she quickly and angrily refuses. Also, others around her tend to tell her placements of things as “it is over there,” being blind she does not know where over there is. Murphy struggles to find the balance of asking for help because she is tired of constantly being questioned and “othered” by those around her. 

       In addition, Murphy also struggles with her identity and the identity of others. There is a scene when she is in the high school bathroom with a couple of high school girls and they put her in front of a minor, and describe what she looks like. Murphy quickly because uncomfortable because she struggles with her identity, partly because she is consistently “othered” by people. Also, others around her are constantly criticizing her, so it was hard for her to hear compliments about herself. This tv show creates questions about identity and how our treatment of others can affect those who are not as confident in their identity. Murphy struggles with her identity, but she tries to hide and suppress her feeling through drinking and solving the death of her best friend, Tyson

.