Respones to Discussions-
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discussions.docxDiscussion 1: (Michael McColgan)
After watching Chelsea Does Racism, I was very shocked to see how the people in the south still had strong feelings about the civil war and the abolishment of slavery. They were trying to depict it as something positive by saying that the slaves were treated well because they spent good money on them, but it still does not take away from the fact that they were being bought against their will, and were not being paid for their hard work. Chelsea Does Racism and Ethnic Notions both show ways in which racism and particular stereotypes have been carried on through generations and have not really changed a bit. Our society tries to say that we have evolved past the harsh times of racism but when comparing these documentaries, we can see that we have not progressed as much as we should have, particularly in the South. Donald Bogle talks about the beginnings of acting and how even when they needed black actors, they would just choose to use white people and paint there faces black, also known as “black-face.” He stated “they sat like boxes on a shelf. A white actor walked by, selected a box and used it as a base.” Even when they started to use black people for roles in acting, they were never treated the same as the white actors.
Discussion 2: (Rachel Morin)
Fruitvale Station presents the issues of police brutality very clearly. I particularly found it meaningful when they showed actual video footage in the beginning and end of the movie to emphasize that this was a real event and real events like this happen all the time. I thought Michael B. Jordan did a fantastic job, and I think his character had a lot of dimension. It portrayed him as an average person, who loved his daughter, loved his family, who has made a few mistakes a long the way, but wanted to make amends.
After the reading for today, it became more and more clear how people who are born into a system that does not care about them and constantly lowers them would contribute to a society filled with fear and hate. Rios writes about the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressors referring to it as a game, he writes “as one side moved to repress, the other moved to resist. The boys were almost always captured and eliminated from the chess board, but not before they had encroached on the opponent’s territory, changing, if even subtly, the game.” During the climactic scene, Oscar made an attempt to get up. He was not fighting or resisting he was just trying to reason with the officers, but out of fear and possible unconscious (or conscious) prejudice the policeman shot him. Symbolically, to me, this represented the “game”, Oscar encroached on the authority’s territory, but when he was shot the game had changed. Unfortunately, it is morbid to think of human beings as pawns in this game of institutionalized racism, but without reform a game it will stay.
Discussion 3: (Dana Westfield)
I do think that Precious is a racist film. There were two specific phrases that Stephen Pimpare used in his piece “The Welfare Queen and the Great White Hope” that I think really highlight the racism in Lee Daniels’s Precious. The first comes at the very beginning of his writing, where he states that the film “reaffirms in every respect the most insidious stereotypes of the Welfare Queen and the rapacious black male” (Pimpare 1). I agree with this statement. It was actually one of the first things that I noticed. Of course there are examples of these two stereotypes in real life (as well as in Sapphire’s novel Push, obviously, upon which the movie is based), but the fact that they drive Precious’s story so much does absolutely nothing to destroy the stereotype. These types of black characters are not so different from the few
Another point that Pimpare made that struck me came when he said, “there seems to be some correlation here between the lightness of a character’s skin and their positive virtue” (Pimpare 2). This concept may be foreign to many people, but when you think about it, it becomes clear that it exists in the movie. For example, Precious’s parents–both of whom are dark skinned African-American people–are the antagonists of the story. They are both very abusive and their negative impacts on our protagonist’s life are impossible to ignore, as they cause pretty much every conflict that occurs in the story. Precious’s saviors (Nurse John and Ms. Rain and her girlfriend) on the other hand are still African-American, but they have much lighter skin than her abusers. In my opinion, Precious does try to bring attention to certain issues that occur all over the country, specifically in low-income communities, but the generalizations made in the film take away from whatever “progressiveness” it may have.
Discussion 4: (Courtney Redmon)
Bamboozled is one of the heaviest visual depictions of racism and racial stereotyping against African American culture I’ve ever witnessed. In it, Lee underscores W. E. B. DuBois’s notion of “double consciousness,” which DuBois more or less defines as the acknowledgment of the ways in which the world “looks on in amused contempt and pity” when judging an individual and “measuring one’s soul.” This concept gave me a lot to chew on because I come from the school of thought that human beings subconsciously think heuristically. Human beings rely primarily on sight to make observations and assessments. Acting instinctively to observe and simplify, compartmentalize, and organize, humans can’t help but immediately (and often unconsciously) judge based on what they visually perceive. Consequently, people involuntarily assess physical traits like race and jump to conclusions – otherwise known as “judging a book by its cover.” That, when paired with deeply rooted history of affirming these racial perceptions, leads to a very amorphous and multidimensional system of racism and prejudice.
In Bamboozled, Pierre continuously states that the sitcom is helping to destruct racism through humor, and while a substantial amount of people in our society believe this to be an effective method, I feel such an approach has to be extremely well considered; more oft than not, satire aimed at racism are poorly articulated or misconstrued, simply adding more fuel to the fire.
It’s a rare thing for films to truly resonate with me, and it’s even rarer for them to remain fresh in my brain even days after watching. That said, Bamboozled, despite watching it over four days ago, gave me a lot to consider going forward in the course.
Discussion 5: ( Hazim Norizan)
The black representations in LUV show that black involves with the crime like drugs and mass incarceration. We can also see that uncle Vincent teach things like shooting, driving, and dealing with money to Woody in order for Woody to become a 'man'. Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow explain about how the minority or colored people in the United States always involved with crime like drugs. In LUV, we can see that African Americans are the one that involve with drugs. Vincent try to sell drugs because he wants the money for helping her mother. However, we cannot say that someone's behavior represents a whole group or race. Michelle Alexander states that, "By extension, the failure of a race or ethnic group to move up reflects very poorly on the group as a whole." This is because Americans believe that someone can move upward into different class if they have proper discipline and determine to change for themselves regardless of their races.
Discussion 6: (Heidi Kanitz)
“Selma is now.” With the events that took place this week “Selma is now” feels all too true. This film was difficult for me to watch, but I appreciated the way that the violence was approached. It was there and it was explosive just like the deaths that have made headlines this week.
“In the North, the exclusionary practices of managers and unions kept them in unskilled occupations with very little chance for occupational mobility.”
These “exclusionary practices” still exist today, but are not as overt as the Jim Crow Laws. America has the greatest number of prisoners of any country in the world (2.2 million in 2014), and 37% of these prisoners are African American males. The leading cause of incarceration is a non-violent drug offence. Studies have shown that people of all races use and sell drugs at a similar rate, yet African American males are penalized at an alarming rate. Racism has shifted into a different type of oppression, an oppression that is not recognized by many Americans who believe racism ended with the election of a black president. Mass incarceration has become a new form of racism. “Selma is now.”
Discussion 7: (Kerry Arone)
Most of the minorities in the movie were what you stereotypical see in other movies besides the 3 main characters. Honestly I believe the film would not be as good if Malcolm was white. I think the whole point of the movie was to show that Malcolm overcame so much to end up where he was. When thinking of the black stereotype, you really do not think of them being smart, having good grades, and wanting to go to college but Malcolm does. And for a white character having good grades and going to college does not seem abnormal. It is actually really sad that we could a movie could be different just based off the color of skin of the main character. In the reading, Eduardo says, "... Ignoring the fact that people of color are severely underrepresented in most good jobs, schools, and universities and, hence, it is an abstract utilization of the idea of "equal opportunity."" The film makes it seem like Malcolm is rare and unique compared to the rest of his peers.
Discussion 8: (Saabira Marker)
I enjoyed this movie. I found it to be really refreshing after the other movies we have watched. I definitely admired Victor’s ability to forgive his father. In that way, I connected with him. Mihelich says in “Smoke or Signals?” that “Sherman Alexie challenges hegemonic and stereotypical images of American Indians through portraying a complex, humanizing, and contemporary image of American
I do not think it would have been racist to use stereotypes as a means to break them. However, I do not think that humanizing these characters is enough to break stereotypes.
