Thanks for the glasses, but I am Blind

Giving someone that is blind glasses with intentions to better their eyesight probably won’t help. Giving an alarm clock to a deaf person with the intentions of helping them wake up on time wouldn’t be the best solution. I am sure there are many more examples in which the intentions of helping others doesn’t actual end up helping or solving problems. The main reason for the examples above won’t result in helping those individuals comes from not actually understanding and critically analyzing the problem in the first place.

The United States has offered many governmental aid and passed different laws in an effort to sustain individual’s livelihood that cannot afford to live on their own financially. However as discussed in the book called The Truly Disadvantaged, the problems associated with people that lived in poverty increased after these governmental interventions. Looking at the example of the individual that was blind, we first have to identify what could be the possible issues they may encounter. The first step is to identify if there is a problem. If the blind person says there is no problem and they are living comfortably than our quest is over. However, if the blind person says that it is difficult for them to navigate around their home then we can start looking for a solution. The second step is to understand what it means to be blind and know if there could be differences amongst other people considered blind. Then we ask the person what they know about their condition. For our example, the person tells us that they have been informed by the doctor that they are legally blind and lost the ability to use their eyes completely. Then we move on to the third step which is to get as much background information on the person. We will try to find out when they got blind, how much do they know about their condition before and after they found out they were blind, what could have caused their blindness, etc.

This part of the step is vital and the more questions asked the better. One possibility could be that they were blind since they were born and have found ways to move around their home but recently moved so they are having trouble getting used to their new home. Another possibility could be that they lost their eyesight due to a fireworks incident and have no idea to adjust to their new condition. There would be completely different approaches to either of these situations.

After gathering all the information you can from the person then we can move on to the fourth step which is finding out what has been done, researched or any other information that there is on this persons particular case. Then the fifth step follows which is to implement a possible solution. The sixth step is to assess and evaluate how the possible solution is working for the person. If the solution works perfectly then you are done but if it doesn’t then we move on to step eight. Step eight would be to analyze why the solution did not work and use that information along with the gathered information and try a different solution. Then the final step nine would be to repeat steps eight until there is a solution that works.

If every problem was approached this way it is a possibility many issues would have been resolved by now. The only issue to this is finding out the true intentions behind those who intend to help and what they would gain from it. I believe that this is also why many issues have not be resolved today.

 

Wilson, William Julius 1987.The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. University of Public Press

                                                                      

No White Guys Allowed

“Guess who” is a comedy film about race and relations directed by in Kevin Rodney Sullivan in 2005. The movie is about an interracial couple Simone Green who’s played by Ashton Kutcher and Theresa Jones who’s played by Zoe Saldana. She took him home to meet her parents for the first time and planned to reveal to her parents that they are engaged but there is a problem Theresa parents never met Simone and they do not know that he is white. Her father Percy jones who’s played by Bernie Mac dislikes Simone from the first time he saw him walking from the Cab without even trying to get to know he automatically started to judge him because of his race. Both Simone and Theresa faced obstacles with being in an interracial relationship. Simone quit his job because his boss told him not to marry a Black girl. Theresa also struggled with being with a white guy she loved him but she never told her parents that Simone was white because she didn’t want her parents to judge her she was also scared of how society would accept her and Simone as a couple.

One thing that really stock out to me in this movie was the way the black family accepted the White guy in their family people usually think that only whites are Hispanics are against interracial marriage or dating but it is also if not as worse in the Black household. A lot of Black people do not like to see their own with different race. It is bad when a Black woman see a Black guy with a white Woman or Hispanics woman they some go as far as saying that the whites and Hispanics woman are taking all the good black man’s away from them.

 

 

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/16/us/interracial-marriage/

http://www.policymic.com/articles/56753/13-of-americans-still-do-not-approve-of-interracial-marriage

 

Jungle Fever: Do We Need A Doctor?

Jungle Fever: Do We Need A Doctor?

By: Betsy Bonilla

            There aren’t very many interracial couples in movies, if at all. So when looking at the very few that do have them we notice that the whole movie is based on the racism surrounding the “abnormal” couple or besides those kinds of films, the “Only way that Hollywood would pair a black man and a white woman would be if he were paralyzed from the waist down.” Gallagher 2012:368) As was Denzel Washington was in The Bone Collector.  

            Yet regardless of why interracial couples are on the big screen, especially in the past, it’s refreshing to see someone trying to break the mold. When looking at Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991) we see “some” of the struggles that a black man and a white woman face.  From all sides of the relationship someone had something negative to say. Both families strongly disagreed with the relationship and so did their friends. While there was some support the bad out weighted the good.

            However the movie as a whole could have been laid out so much better. For a film trying to get a strong point across like racism it was still playing it safe. It was filled with a lot of stereotypical actions and behaviors for both Blacks and Italian-Americans. For example Flipper and his family seemed to be wealthy and well educated yet they were still surrounded with drugs and the possibility of future prostitution and Angie’s family and friends were portrayed as “Mafia” types who keep to their own and literally beat up whoever strays away.  

            I wonder how this movie would have turned out if Flipper wasn’t married when he got with Angie and if Angie wasn’t an Italian-American but just American. Also if Flipper hadn’t felt that his attraction to her was solely that he was only curious about being with a white woman and that he hadn’t told Angie that she should accept she was also only curious about black men. Leaving her with that only option where as maybe she actually liked him and wanted to have cute interracial babies with him, not just lots of “forbidden” sex. I fear that if that where the case then we would have never heard of this movie Jungle Fever.

            Not to say that the term Jungle Fever wouldn’t have existed but maybe used less frequently. That’s another thing I would have changed about this movie, the name. I understand it gets the attention of many people but not always good attention. Especially when the term its self, is demeaning when talking about people because it refers to animals and well to a disease. It’s to say that you are so sick “feverish” that you now act as an untamed animal from the “jungle” and that that is the only explanation that there is for you or someone else to be in an interracial relationship.

            So that interracial couple, not too long ago, had every right to get upset about their Valet writing on their keys “Jungle Fever” because that was racist, disrespectful and hurtful on so many levels. It didn’t really matter if the valet was white, black, or Asian. We must all get away from derogative saying!                            

 

 

             

Work Cited

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, ed. 2010. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and Racial            Inequality in Contemporary America. 3^rd ed. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Gallagher, Charles A., ed. 2012. Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity. 5th

            ed. La Salle University

 

http://newsone.com/2824496/samuel-kandea-aarons-atlanta/

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-01-18/news/ct-met-spike-lee-speaks-0118-20110118_1_italian-american-groups-italian-american-directors-spike-lee

 

The Struggle is Real

    If ever there was a movie that could capture my attention so much that I don't speak for the whole duration of the film Crash is that movie. From the first time I watched it in my high school Sociology class I was amazed. At first I was skeptical because I thought it was one of those movies that make you cry and I hate those...but since it was an in class movie I had to watch it. Turns out it was one of the best movies I had ever seen. The way each person is connected in one way or another; a type of 6 degrees of separation, was what really made me think. This world isn't so large after all and everyone has their own struggles.

    Struggles. That was the main thing I got from that movie. I used to only think that only minorities had struggles, and when I say minorities I thought only in terms of black or Latino. For whatever reason I only thought that that was how far the struggle went. It wasn't until we watched this movie that I realized that after we break down race, there is the actual ethnicity of each person that brings the most struggle. The store owner's shop didn't get vandalized because of him it was because of his ethnicity; the black couple were harassed because they were black. Race and ethnicity play into this movie and perfectly depict how it is to live in modern day America; especially in Los Angeles California, one of the most integrated cities in the U.S. In all three readings for this class we read the many different ethnicites that have issues and their long histories, the social standings of ethnicites, and the problems that came with that and even the covert ways that racism still exists. I believe that everything we learned in this class- aside from the history of ethnic relations in other counties- can be summed up in this movie.


    One takeaway that anyone can get from this movie is that no matter what one's social, racial, or ethnic standing in life, everyone has a personal struggle and we will never be united if we break others down for our own selfish reasons.

American History X

No Power in Racism 

American History X was made in 1998 and depicts the life of two brothers growing up in Venice Beach, California.  Edward Norton plays the main role of the older of the two brothers, and is a leader in a neo-Nazi racist group.  Norton was incarcerated at the beginning of the movie for voluntary man-slaughterer.  Norton gunned down two African American’s and graphically “curb stomped” another.  This is an extremely important scene in the movie because it portrays the level of hate breed inside him through his racist leader in the group.  When he gets out of prison, he finds out that his brother has followed in his footsteps.  Norton’s time in prison eventually lead to him having a change of opinion and opened his eyes.  Unfortunately, his brother was too deep and ended up being killed in the bathroom of his school.

            This movie is sociologically impactful because of the power of groups and socialization especially adding the family dynamic to it.  The death of Norton’s brother happened, in part, because of his involvement with the neo-Nazi group.  The racist life-style immersed his brother, and held on tight.  In the same regard, we can see a huge separation between the whites and African Americans through out the movie.  One of the major examples of this was portrayed through a basketball game between the two races.  Symbolically this is showing the separation between them through means of sport interaction.  Both teams did not show any sort of interest in the other.  This is a reoccurring role through out the movie.  However, the racial issues are truly portrayed through the role of extremist that is played.  This is obviously an extreme case in which people will pass as a fictitious role within society.  Even though there are gut wrenching racist acts within the movie, it does not hold much validity among many people today.  Most Racism today is not as radical as this movie plays out, and it is hard to relate and truly address the problem.  Race in America is masked by anecdotal humor and is minimized through “colorblindness”. 

            In conclusion the movie is a great portrait of an extremist situation through the lens of very few.  Due to the lack of reality for average people, it is extremely hard to learn a lesson through the film, or take away much.  Although it does build a grave lesson that is necessary through violence, the overall message loses strength through its connectivity to the masses.                   

What happens in the Hood!

Kenyatta Berryhill

Race and Ethnicity
Simon Weffer
Blog #4

What happens in the Hood!

 

                This movie played a great role under the umbrella of sociology. Boyz n the Hood shows a lot of racism via African American authority figures and just society in itself. Since this movie was filmed in the late eighty’s, color blind racism was probably in existence but it was definitely not disguised at this period. The main issue I spotted is the “Black boy dreams”. According to Bonilla-Silva, “If they are not admitted into a college, it must be because of a minority. This story line allows whites to never consider the possibility that they are not qualified for a job, promotion, or college" (Silva 83).  This statement shows racism blatantly and white people not taking account for their problems. Are African Americans only making it into colleges because of their athletic ability or simply because African Americans have great knowledge about what they are studying. White people will never think the acceptance is via education, so the judgmental mind of a white person would always assume athletics.

                Although that is a problem, it is now just one of many. As I stated the “Black boy dream”, in low income urban neighborhoods every young African American boy has dreams of getting famous through sports. Their ultimate goal is to get their family out of the ghetto and live with no struggles! In this movie, Ricky lived in Compton, California with his mother, brother, son and girlfriend. Ricky main goal was to get out of the hood, by going to college playing football working towards playing in the NFL. One main factor of racism stuck out which was environmental racism. The urban area of Compton, California was proven as the last item on the government priority list. In the movie Tre’s father, spoke to locals in the neighborhood about the things they should do to increase their knowledge and help their own community.

                Overall, Boyz in the Hood is one my favorite movies. It shows the world a lot about what goes down in the urban communities and the factor that times doesn’t make a difference. These specific factors that are happening in this movie in the eighty’s are happening today. Bonilla-Silva as well as our class discussions is just some of the evidence that support all of the actions presented in this movie. My favorite scene in the movie is when Tre father spoke. Sometimes it takes that one individual that lives in the neighborhood to care and help others increase their knowledge. If the media and government won’t help, if has to be taken into African Americans hand themselves. Another factor that played a great role was the character of Ricky. The director proved the typical young black man searching for an outlet for him and his family. He chose sports, not only because he loved the sport, but he knew if that’s the only way then I have to exceed in what only opportunity is given to a guy like him.

               

Racism is Racism

The movie that I decided to watch was “Crash”, directed by Paul Haggis. This movie goes through a number of stories from different viewpoints. We are able to see whites, Latinos blacks, Koreans, Iranians, criminals and cops deal with a lot of issues of racism that we see today. The movie takes us through a few different stories with different families of different races. We will see many things that they have to go through on a daily basis. Each family is racist against a race that is not of their own, and we are able to see the different ways that racism can be portrayed by different people.

While watching the movie I noticed a number of things that we have talked about in class. One of the many things would be racial profiling. In the beginning of the movie, a young white couple is walking out in the street when two young black men come and cross their path. She seems afraid but doesn't react, but soon after the same two black men hold her and her husband up and steal their car. This brings all of her fears to life when she admits later that she was worried, but didn't do anything and wishes she did. This is one of the many examples that we are able to see in the movie. Later she takes racial profiling even farther and tells her husband that she wants her locks changed again because the man that was doing it was Hispanic and had tattoos, which automatically made her assume he was in a gang. We see this on a day to day basis. People judging those around them by their skin color when most of the time they are just like them. Going through the same things in order to take care of their families.

We can see that not only whites are the racist ones, but everyone from every race has some kind of racist belief in them. Whites are constantly being looked down on for being racist. We rarely ever call out other races their racist behaviors because we are so focused on whites. We have discussed in class that this is because of the past when whites owned blacks as slaves. Now it’s seen as okay for blacks or other races to say racist things without being seen as racist, but when whites do it, it’s completely looked down upon.

Racism is racism no matter who it is coming from. The only way that racism can come to an end is if everyone stops supporting it. In the last chapter of Bonilla Silvia, we are able to see the ten steps to get past racism. All of these steps are things that we as individuals must do in order to stop it. According to Bonilla Silvia, “Be a positive role model to all the younger people in your life – if they hear you use foul language, then all likelihood they will to.” (402) lead by example because the only way we can change racism is by changing ourselves.  

This movie gave its viewers a good idea of what it’s like for people who are different from themselves and what they have to go through on a daily basis. We are able to see that through we are different races, we all have the same fears and in the end we’re not very different from each other. 

https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling

http://archive.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.html#.U2SKzfldVBY