Author: hooper.140

Text Review – Get Out

by

Jordan Peele’s first film as a writer and director, Get Out (2017) is a comprehensive social commentary disguised as an American horror film. Chris’ white girlfriend Rose is ready for him to meet her parents upstate. As a black man, Chris has concerns about what Rose’s parents will think of their relationship, but Rose assures him that they’ll be loving and accepting. The situation becomes increasingly fishy as the visit goes on until Chris realizes he is in mortal danger because of his race. The movie makes a couple powerful points about racism in America and the power dynamic involved. Horror movie main characters are seldom black, and Get Out uses this to turn Othering on its head. As the viewer accepts Chris as filling the protagonist role, the movie doesn’t grant many humanizing traits to the Armitage family. They are creepy from the start, and they easily fill the role of being the movie’s monsters. While black people have been Othered in America since its very beginnings, the movie puts rich white people in this position. The intention seems to be to show white viewers who may feel uncomfortable that this is the reality black people have experienced throughout history.

The Armitage family still holds the power in the movie to the point where Chris has to kill or be killed. While violence is often glorified in many aspects of American culture, it is typically quickly stifled and criticized when used as a means of social resistance. Get Out does a great job making the viewer feel Chris’ desperation, and in doing so challenges real-life views on black resistance while drawing a parallel to the level of desperation black people often feel in terms of racial justice in America. In one particular scene, Chris experiences the “horror” of a large get-together of rich white people. Many of the guests make what appear to be micro-aggressive racial remarks toward Chris. While bothered, he does his best to smile and shake it off. As is later revealed, these micro-aggressions were actually related to a despicable, violent, and racist plot. Get Out is making the real-life point that even the most seemingly harmless racial remarks we still hear in modern society are inextricably rooted in a violent racial power dynamic that at one point in history had resulted in slavery itself. Get Out is a powerful satire with a plot that is chillingly entertaining in its own right. If you’re a fan of horror films and want to apply tools and concepts we learned in this class to more literature, I recommend you watch it!

Yo, is this…Systemic Injustice? – Ryan Hooper, Sophie Laferriere, Katlynn Fuller

by

Ryan: Hello and welcome to the podcast, Yo, is this..Systemic Injustice? My name is Ryan Hooper, and I’m here with my co-host, Sophie Laferriere. Today we are here to talk about the most recent presidential election.

Sophie: Hey everyone!

Ryan: With the Presidential Election taking place as we speak, one topic that is of great significance to all of us is voting opportunity in America. Today we will be interviewing Katlynn Fuller regarding her thoughts on disproportionate voting turnout across different demographics in the United States.

Sophie: So, Katlynn, to get started, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what concerns you are coming to us with today?

Katlynn: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk with you guys today! My name is Katlynn Fuller and I am 22 years old. I have been born and raised in Ohio. I am a senior at The Ohio State University. This is my second time getting the wonderful opportunity to vote in a presidential election. Since voting in the last election, I have gained a lot more knowledge about what all goes into voting. I understand that it is very important to know and confirm the identity of a voter. However, it has been brought to my attention that the ways in which we demand citizens to prove their identity are in fact hindering people from being able to vote.

Ryan: Having the opportunity to vote can certainly be exciting in and of itself. What you bring up is very interesting. Could you elaborate on the specific factors that are hindering people from being able to vote?

Katlynn: Sure, for example when a person goes to vote in the general election – whether that be in person or on a requested absentee ballot – one of the required I.D. confirmation options in many states is a driver’s license or state ID number. So, if a person does not have a car or license to drive to the polls on election day they may request an absentee ballot. They would still be unable to vote if they did not have any sort of state ID to confirm their identity.

Sophie: That does seem like it could impede people’s ability to vote, especially those in low income communities.

Ryan: Indeed. Many people support strict ID voting laws, however, arguing that they are necessary to help avoid voter fraud. What would you say to someone who might suggest that it’s easy for anyone to go to your local DMV and get a state ID, even if you can’t get a driver’s license?

Katlynn: Well, it’s important that we don’t create one single “story” in our minds for what each person’s experience may be. There are a lot of factors to consider that can provide barriers to people’s ability to vote. First off, the reality is that many more Americans than people realize do not have photo IDs. Of voting-age Americans, it’s actually 18% of people over 65, 16% of Latino voters, 15% of those who earn incomes less than $35,000, and 25% of African Americans. 

Sophie: Wow, that’s incredible. That has to be millions and millions of Americans.

Katlynn: Right, this is a huge portion of the country that is affected by strict ID laws. 

Ryan: So what barriers are keeping these people from obtaining state or government-issued IDs?

Katlynn: There are a couple different barriers at play. In many areas of the country, especially rural areas, sometimes the local DMV can be tens to hundreds of miles away from where you live. Public transportation is often expensive, and many of these people work jobs where they simply can’t afford to take off and spend hours at the DMV. IDs are often not free and can be pretty expensive themselves. 

Ryan: Those are huge points to consider. So, it may be easy for someone in a place of financial privilege to say that people can sort of just ante up and find out a way to get an ID, but there are certainly, at the very least, substantial disincentives in place.

Katlynn: Exactly.

Sophie: Requiring a government ID definitely seems like a barrier that divides people’s ability to vote based on income. So, how do we go about identifying people to legitimize their ballots otherwise?

Katlynn: So yes, most people would agree there has to be some sort of identification measure in place. The thing is, there are many other forms people can provide to confirm their identities so that everyone is given a fair chance to vote. We can have people provide the last four digits of their social security, bank statements, current utility bills, paychecks, W-2 forms, or other government documents. It’s also important to note that voter fraud is not as prevalent as many people think. In a 2014 study, just 31 cases were found out of more than a billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014.

Ryan: These seem like reasonable alternatives that should be in place in every state. Are there any barriers to voting other than requiring IDs?

Katlynn: There may be multiple others, but one other thing that comes to mind is long lines at voting sites. An MIT survey during the 2016 election actually found that black voters waited 16 minutes in line on average, while white voters waited 10 minutes. Multiple studies actually backed this up. So we also have to make sure we are providing sufficient resources to voting locations across the country. Long lines can disincentivize voters who can’t take time off work, as we talked about.

Sophie: So, Katlynn, are these voting barriers examples of systemic injustice?

Katlynn: I think they would be very good examples of systemic injustice. An important distinction for what makes something a systemic injustice is outcomes. It isn’t always a case of an intentional act to oppress certain people groups. Whether or not the barriers we discussed were intentionally put in place to suppress the votes of minorities and low income Americans, the reality is that they do. Black, Asian, and Latino voter turnouts have all been significantly lower in almost all elections since 1988. And when measuring voter turnout based on income, there is a clear correlation between those two variables.

Ryan: Voting looked very differently many years ago. In your opinion, Katlynn, how might our country today be different if the power to vote was still limited to those who had it at the time of the writing of the constitution?

Katlynn: That’s a great question and puts a different spin on things! According to the Washington State of secretary website, only white men, 21 years or older who were landowners could vote. First of all the limited number of people that would be eligible to vote would make the voting process much quicker and maybe less intense. Less people would be interested in my opinion because they did not have any ability to sway the outcome of a voting election. I know that if I was not able to vote in the election I may have more bitter feelings or care less about the outcome of voting knowing that there was nothing that I could do to change the results. Also, the demand for owning a piece of land would be much higher. Fewer people own as much land today, which is different than at the time of the writing of the constitution. Many other things would most likely be different with the structure of our government as well, thank you for the question!

When thinking about my experience voting this year, I did not once feel as if it was a hassle or that I may not have the income or means to do so. It was as simple as requesting a ballot to my home address and turning it into my polling location. This may be difficult for a voting citizen who does not have a car to drive to the polls or a home address to receive a mail in ballot at. 

Sophie: All in all, what does voting mean to you? 

Katlynn: For me, voting is an opportunity to have my voice heard. We have the privilege as the people to decide what we want in our government. My vote will decide how my country will be run, what type of government it will have, and who will be in control. Everyone who votes in some way changes history and I think that is awesome. I have always heard my family and other people close to me talk about how important their vote has been to them, and after my first time voting I can understand why they have always felt that way. 

Sophie: I completely agree voting is very important. You have made some very good points and I really like how dedicated you are to doing whatever you can to make a change in our country. 

Ryan: Katlynn, thank you so much for making time to come and talk on our podcast. It was so nice having you on here to share your experiences! 

Katlynn: Thank you again Ryan and Sophie for having me as a quest on your show!

Sophie: Again this is the  Yo, is this..Systemic Injustice? podcast. Thank you for coming and we will be back next week for more!

 

References:

https://indivisible.org/resource/voter-id-101-right-vote-shouldnt-come-barriers

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54240651

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by

Ryan Hooper 

This showcase blog post will be about just one of the many ways that Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought against systemic injustice during her life in honor of her legacy. Ginsburg was nominated by President Bill Clinton and served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1993 until her death in September of 2020, being the first Jewish woman and the second women to serve on the Court. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956 and was quickly inspired in her work by sexism she experienced herself during her degree and in the workforce as a lawyer. In the 70’s, she volunteered at the American Civil Liberties Union and became director of the Women’s Rights Project. It was during this time that she helped pass an amendment to Title VII called the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978. This act provided additional protections for women against being fired or not considered for a job on the basis of being or having plans to get pregnant [1]. This was huge progress in attaining workplace equality for women. Research in social science has illuminated that pregnancy-based discrimination is driven by stereotypes related to the competence and commitment of pregnant women rather than factual trends [2]. Pregnancy discrimination is a form of systemic injustice because it is an injustice enacted by corporations and institutions in how they treat their constituents. Before it was made illegal, it continued to be passively enabled by systems that did not take accountability for the inequality it produced. In Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex, she writes, “Why is it that women do not dispute male sovereignty?” Throughout her career, Ginsburg did exactly that. Despite progress attained from the diligent work of remarkable individuals such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are far from complete equity and equality in the workplace regardless of gender. Women working full time earned 81.6 cents to every dollar earned by men working full time on average in 2018 [3]. While this diary showcase submission focused on the work of RBG on a federal level, these disparities continue to affect women around the country, so it is certainly a day-to-day issue for the women close to me. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life work inspires me to fight for gender equality and equity throughout my life when opportunities arise to do so!

Sources:

[1]: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/gender-equality-laws-quotes-ruth-bader-ginsburg/

[2]: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0891243214523123

[3]: https://www.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3#the-gender-wage-gap-varies-widely-depending-on-the-state-1

Week 7 Context Presentation – Challenges and Benefits of Adapting ‘Persepolis’ to Film

by

Ryan Hooper

This context research presentation will be focused on the decision to adapt Persepolis to film and the associated production challenges, as well as the benefits of this medium.

Persepolis (film) was developed as a co-production between French and Iranian film companies. The movie was co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi herself. She emphasized in an interview that animation was her first choice for the film adaptation, saying, “With live-action, it would have turned into a story of people living in a distant land who don’t look like us. At best, it would have been an exotic story, and at worst, a ‘third-world’ story. The novels have been a worldwide success because the drawings are abstract, black-and-white. I think this helped everybody relate to it, whether in China, Israel, Chile, or Korea; it’s a universal story.” Satrapi clearly valued the drawings in the graphic novel for their ability to capture the empathy of the reader and wanted this effect to be maintained for the film.

This proved not to be as simple as transposing the artwork for the movie, however. It was considered an artistic constraint to just use black-and-white hues for an animated film. Because of this, the producers focused on maintaining the feel of the novel while making the necessary adjustments for the new medium. Backgrounds for scenes were created from scratch, and various grey shades were integrated using pictures of Tehran and Vienna for inspiration. This shading was contrasted with fluent lines. “We had to bear in mind not to soften the graphic strength of Marjane’s universe,” said Paronnaud. While 2D imaging techniques on pen tablets were experimented with, the production team was unsatisfied with the lack of definition. The team eventually went with traditional pen and ink, which resulted in a style that successfully emulated Satrapi’s original work in the novel. Using a black-and-white presentation for an animated movie also presented challenges in terms of avoiding mistakes that wouldn’t be as blatant in a color context. “From a technical point of view, you can’t make any mistakes,” said art director and executive producer Marc Jousset, “As soon as an eye isn’t drawn in the right place, or a pupil not perfectly drawn, it shows up straight away on the large screen.” Animating all of the necessary characters for the film also took a substantial amount of time. Models had to be created for settings in the story with different clothing styles, different character ages, and plenty of extras. Marjane drew all of the characters for the film, over 600 in total. Overall, around 80,000 drawings for 130,000 images were created. Satrapi actually even insisted on being filmed playing out every scene to provide additional insight for the animators.

While adapting Persepolis to film had its animation challenges, it also provided the opportunity to enhance the story with sound. The score was composed by Olivier Bernet, who created four different “musical atmospheres” to go with the film’s four distinct parts. “The first and second ones are quite sober, and chiefly with string instruments,” said Bernet, “The dream scenes (dialogues with God) are plainer: a piano, a few string instruments. I also had fun in the first half of the film when we see people dancing to disco music. It had to sound like Iranian disco music – well, at least what I figured the music sounded like! For other scenes, I drew my inspiration from an Iranian rock CD that Marjane had lent me. The third and most diverse part is the one taking place in Vienna with the rock concerts, the hippies in the woods with their guitars, the nightclubs, etc.” The attention to detail in composing the score of the film brings depth to the story, which is especially important with how much of Marji’s youth revolves around listening to music.

All of the work on animation and music paid off as the positive reviews and rewards quickly flooded in. One review said “nothing was lost” in the adaptation, that “fluid movement boosts the emotional meaning of Satrapi’s images,” and that “music brings depth to the story.” Among many award wins and nominations, the film was nominated for “Best Animated Feature” at the Academy Awards, “Best Foreign Language Film” at the Golden Globe Awards, and made #6 on Time magazine’s “Top 10 Movies of 2007”. Adapting Satrapi’s Persepolis to film was a bold choice that reaped rewards primarily due to the amount of care dedicated toward preserving what made the novel so powerful.

 

References

Hetherington, Janet. “Persepolis’ in Motion.” Animation World Network, 2007.

https://www.awn.com/animationworld/persepolis-motion

Sampath, Sheila. “Persepolis the Film: A Moving Adaptation of Graphic Storytelling.” Shameless. 2008.

https://shamelessmag.com/blog/entry/persepolis-the-film-a-moving-adaptation-of-graphi

“Persepolis (film)” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Last Edited 1 October 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)#References