For my text review, I chose to look at the film Queen and Slim. This film was release in 2019, and it covers issues of race r
elations and identity. In the movie, a black man and woman, nicknamed Slim and Queen respectively, experience problems on a first date when they are pulled over by the police leaving a diner. The situation escalates when the officer asks to search Slim’s car and the three get into an argument over the traffic stop; eventually, Queen– a defense attorney– is shot in the leg by the officer, and Slim takes the officers gun and kills him. A majority of the movie follows the couple on their run from the police, meeting random people along the way. The film covers a wide array of topics, but most prominently the film examines the relationship between black Americans and the police. In my opinion, the common theme throughout this movie is confusion; this confusion comes from both the characters being in an unfamiliar situation, and from their conflicting ideas of right and wrong. On one hand, Slim had shot and killed a police officer during a traffic stop, but on the other hand the couple was being harassed by the officer, and both Queen and Slim understand that one of them would likely have been killed by the officer. The issue in the movie that translates to real life, as well as the topics we’ve discussed in class, is the problem of black men and women being treated with force by police in America. Time and time again, we have seen incidents on the news where unarmed black men and women have been killed as a result of an escalated situation with police. This film, however, displays a different outcome to that common situation. Also, there are multiple scenes that make the two main characters– and the viewer– question their opinion on the fictional situation. In one scene late in the movie, the couple takes their car into a small auto shop, where the owner– a black man– recognizes who they are; the owner tells them bluntly that he doesn’t agree with what they did because he feels it just gives police officers more reason to react inappropriately to black men and women. The owners son, however, sees the couple as heroic; while on a walk with the couple, the auto shop owner’s son, Junior, tells the couple that, no matter what happens to them, they’ll be okay. He says, “Because then you’ll be immortal. I wanna be immortal too… I just want people to know I was here.” This quote was the most powerful moment in my opinion. In this class, we have discussed identity thoroughly. In this film, the two main characters experience problems that make them question their identity. Eventually, they come to understand that their incident was seen as a way for black Americans to fight back, not literally by killing police officers, but by calling out the injustices they have become all too familiar with.
Author: boyle.311
Yo, Is This Racial Injustice?
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, right, began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem during the 2016 preseason to protest police brutality and racial injustice in the United States.
Starting in the 2016 NFL season, San Francisco 49er’s quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, began taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem pregame; Kaepernick was choosing to protest police brutality towards Black American men and women by kneeling during the anthem. Despite choosing a very harmless form of protest, he has received more scrutiny and backlash than any athlete I’ve seen in my lifetime. Kaepernick was joined by teammate Eric Reid on September 1, 2016, the first time that the two chose to kneel- Kaepernick had remained seated previously during the anthem, but it went mainly unnoticed the first few times. Fast forward to the current season, and you will likely see many players choosing to kneel or make some sort of gesture during the anthem in protest of the same injustices. The argument of protesting the anthem has been one of the NFL’s most hot topics since that night in September, splitting sports fans and attracting political coverage from various media sources. Kaepernick, who hasn’t played a down of football since the close of the 2016 season, has been one of the most vocal activists in the fight against racial injustices in America.
On September 10, 2020, just over four years since Kapernick’s movement began, the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off the NFL season at home against the Houston Texans. This exhibition was the first football game since COVID-19 hit the US in March; even through the excitement of finally starting the football season, Americans were reminded just how blatant racial injustice really is in their country. Prior to the game, the Houston Texans chose not to take the field for the national anthem; rather, they came out of the locker room after the anthem ended and met the Chiefs at midfield. The two teams stood at midfield, linked arms, and showed a moment of silence in solidarity with those fighting for racial equality. In a nearly empty stadium, the gesture was met by “boo’s” from the fans in Kansas City. It is still up for debate whether the Kansas City fans were booing the Texans for choosing to skip the anthem or if they were booing the moment of silence in general; nonetheless, a seemingly harmless and unified gesture was met with outrage from football fans around the country.
In order to fully understand how that disgraceful response came about, we need to look at the sociopolitical climate of the country in the past decade. Even before the 2010’s, Black Americans have been fighting for their undeniable rights and equalities since the creation of the United States; it is not uncommon in America for people to protest the treatment of people of color, and it never has been. I am not denying that racial injustice has been an issue for much longer than the past decade, but I am looking to focus on the incident described in the previous paragraph. Therefore, I will begin the analysis in 2012, when George Zimmerman was let off for the murder of Trayvon Martin. This was perhaps one of the most polarizing moments in American society of the past decade; an unarmed, Black teenager was shot by a member of the neighborhood watch in Sanford, Florida. According to Britannica, Zimmerman claimed that Martin looked like he was “…up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something.”. The incident sparked many athletes to speak up against racial profiling and injustices, including Lebron James and the Miami Heat. It also sparked a conversation among celebrities about how they can use their platform and voice to bring about change in their communities. Sadly, this was not the last incident where an unarmed, innocent person of color was killed. Most recently, police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis knelt on the neck of George Floyd- an unarmed black man- and suffocated him to death after being told that Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli on May 25, 2020. Chauvin was accompanied by multiple officers who chose to sit back and say nothing, despite Floyd crying out for his life. In the middle of one of the most deadly global pandemics, Americans watched an innocent black man have his life taken on camera. The recurring theme in cases like this are
the response from the police and those in power. In an overwhelming number of these cases, the people responsible for the deaths of innocent Black men and women see little to no punishment or consequences. In the March 2020 case of Breonna Taylor, police officers who served a no-knock warrant at her Louisville home shot and killed Taylor- a 26-year old emergency medical technician. No charges were brought on the officers responsible for her death, and they continue to walk free today. There are an overwhelming number of cases like Taylor’s and Floyd’s where the guilty party receives little to no punishment. These incidents only made the voices of those outraged even louder; this brings us to September, when the Chiefs and Texans chose to stand together against racial injustice.
Although it may have been an independent incident, the boos heard in the stadium that night reminded us just how much work needed to be done to end racial unjustice in the US. In a country that was built, literally, on the backs of African slaves, we seem to forget that American society has racial structures that date back to the creation of the nation. Racial stereotypes and assumptions are so deeply embedded in American culture that many don’t even notice how serious the current issue is. So how can we fix an issue that is so deep that it’s nearly invisible? For starters, the dialogue we’ve seen over the past decade is a great first step in the right direction. Since we’re looking at an incident within the sports world, I want to focus on the contributions that high-profile athletes have made to start this dialogue. Gestures like kneeling for the anthem, wearing “Black Lives Matter” clothing before games, and speaking out to the media are all great ways to capture the attention of the people who will eventually make meaningful change: the youth. As Indian theorist Gayatri Spivak explained in her essay, Can the Subaltern Speak, groups of people who have been deemed inferior by Western society have difficulties having their voices heard. Spivak wrote about how India was deemed a “third-world” country by Western culture as a means of delegitimizing the country, allowing Great Britain to colonize them. In the case of Black Americans’ fight for equality, up until, really, the late 1960’s Black men and women didn’t have a voice because people in positions of power- namely white men- did not allow them to. Looking at athletes’ use of their platforms, we can see that more than just those affected are outraged by the blatant injustice. Even casual sports fans can see these silent protests and realize how divided we are racially. The theoretical “Western society” in this case are those in charge of the police department and the American justice system. By not responding appropriately to these incidents, people in positions of power are effectively sweeping the issue under the rug in an attempt to maintain the current racial power structures. The racial power structures I’m referring to take the form of what German philosopher Georg Hegel would describe as the “master-slave dialectic”. In his writings, Hegel describes natural human desire for recognition and how it drives us; he argues that, in order to obtain that recognition, we compare ourselves to those around us. What ensues is a struggle for recognition between two people, where one person- the “master”- gains recognition at the expense of someone else’s identity- the “slave”. Applying this to the racial struggle in America, white men gained their recognition by dehumanizing Black men and women and deeming them inferior; recognition, in this case, is political and social power. While this may have worked at the culmination of the United States and during early civil rights movements, there are many people in America now that may not be directly affected by these incidents but are just as outraged and appalled by the clear miscarriage of justice and suppression of Black voices. We’re living in a world where Black Americans have more of a voice than ever, and that is progress in my opinion; however, it can’t stop there.
I don’t claim to have the answers, and I don’t know if anyone does at this point. I would argue that the solution to racial injustice in America starts with a dialogue and needs to be followed up by the education of our youth. What happened that night in September was shocking to see, but not all that surprising. It was indicative of the social and political climate of America today. So where do we go from here? Situations like those mentioned previously can’t go unnoticed; we need to continue to call people out when we see clear forms racial injustice. I don’t believe there is an overnight fix, and I can acknowledge that it will take a lot of time before we see real change. But Americans need to come together, now more than ever, and admit that there is still a racial struggle in America.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/01/colin-kaepernick-kneeling-history/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/us/nfl-chiefs-texans-unity-spt-trnd/index.html
https://www.britannica.com/event/shooting-of-Trayvon-Martin
https://nypost.com/2020/05/28/everything-we-know-about-the-death-of-george-floyd/
Can the Subaltern Speak, Gayatri Spivak
Master-Slave Dialectic, Georg Hegel
Week 10 Context Presentation
This week, we are reading Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is a collection of stories about Indian immigration and reflects the lives of anyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. In order to fully understand the conflicts experienced by the migrants, we need to understand how Partition split a subcontinent into multiple nation-states.
Up until August 1947, the larger Indian subcontinent was a British colony; however, following protest from Indian citizens and outside nations, Britain left India and allowed them independence. At the time, the subcontinent consisted of a mainly Muslim and Hindu population. Following Britain’s departure, a group of men, including India’s future Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and future Pakistani Governor-General Moammad Ali Jinnah, sat and negotiated the future of the Asian subcontinent(The Guardian). Eventually, the group would agree to split the area into two nations: the northwestern and northeastern regions of the region would become Pakistan and the rest was left as India. The two Pakistani regions- the northeastern portion eventually becoming Bangladesh- consisted of the mainly Muslim population, while the Indian region would consist of a mainly Hindu population. According to The Guardian, the men responsible for this partition of land understood the religious conflicts that would arise, and were visibly nervous about the decision to split the subcontinent along religious boundaries. The splitting of the land would lead to the migration of hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens between the two nations; many citizens did not want to be a part of the religious “minority” in fear of religious persecution(BBC). Many people scattered across borders, leading to massive increases in refugees and displaced families. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims were at an all-time high in the two nations(The New Yorker). With millions of people forced out of their homelands, violence and panic erupted throughout India and Pakistan over religious differences and border disputes(BBC). This is considered to be one of the largest forced migrations in the world that was not the result of war or famine(BBC).
The effects of Partition are still evident today in India and Pakistan as conflicts continue. In order to further understand the stories told by Lahiri, it is important to understand how displacement and religious borders have confused the identities of many Indian citizens. In our reading for this week, we will almost certainly see the effects of Partition reflected in the lives of Lahiri’s characters and short stories.
References:
Dalrymple, William, et al. “The Mutual Genocide of Indian Partition.” The New Yorker, 22 June 2015, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple.
Khan, Yasmin. “Why Pakistan and India Remain in Denial 70 Years on from Partition.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/05/partition-70-years-on-india-pakistan-denial.
“The Partition of India: What Happened? – CBBC Newsround.” BBC News, BBC, 6 Dec. 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46428985.
“Learning Curve British Empire.” The National Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g3/cs3/background.htm.
Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase
For diabetic Americans, the price of insulin has been a serious problem for many. According to StatNews, one vial of insulin in 2019 costs around $300 with heath insurance(StatNews). In comparison, the equivalent amount of a basic antibiotic costs around $30(Walgreens). In the American health insurance system, many people are forced to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a necessity. According to a Washington Post article, one American shows that a 30-day supply of insulin cost them $1,389.92 without insurance. However, at a recent presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed that he helped drop the price of insulin drastically; this was clearly false. Although he claims that the price was unbelievably cheap, it still costs many people a hefty check. The problem with charging such high prices for a lifesaving drug is that many Americans with diabetes are unable to afford this without insurance, and health insurance isn’t a cheap alternative. Most people get health benefits through their employers since the cost of independent health insurance can be very high; however, with millions of Americans being laid off as a result of COVID-19, there has been a drastic increase in unemployment numbers. This means that millions of Americans are without health insurance. Sadly, the manufacturers of insulin are allowed to charge whatever prices they want for their product as a result of US law and lack of competition within the market, and the availability of health insurance has decreased in the past few years especially as a result of the ongoing pandemic. As Spivak has taught us this semester, the voices of diabetic people are going unheard because the producers of the drug are able to get away with price gouging. This is strictly due to the fact that the producers of insulin want to keep the price high to take advantage of people. This could be a life-threatening issue for many people in underserved areas who have lost their jobs in the past few months. For those who cannot afford their necessary medication, they are left to search for alternatives, as unhealthy as they may be; this is an example of systemic injustice because it is basically a group of wealthy people using their economic leverage against the less fortunate. People like Donald Trump have no problem claiming that the price of insulin is affordable because they know that price isn’t an issue, but there is an overwhelming percentage of the population that would disagree and are as vulnerable as ever.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/30/trump-insulin-cost/
https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/29/trump-insulin-fact-check/
https://www.walgreens.com/images/adaptive/pdf/psc/PSCBrochure-English-20180628.pdf