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Blog Post #5!!!!

The story of The Devil in America, gave me the chills and is something that makes me uncomfortable. When I was reading that Easter, whose family’s been haunted with the magic of old African, was talking to this “man” and making a deal, I already knew that it was making a pact with the devil. Of course, when you are young like Easter you don’t realize what you are doing. I felt horrible for Easter for quite a few reasons. To begin with, she didn’t choose to be haunted with old African magic. Also, most importantly, she just wanted to fix her family’s tobacco field that she didn’t even mean to destroy and that’s why she made such a deal. Imagine you as a child ruin something of your family’s and you feel horrible about it, someone comes to you saying that it can be fixed but they’d have to repay for it later, of course you’re going to take it and not think twice about what’s later on to come or think that that is the devil. One may say, but Edward she wasn’t listening to her own mother about not messing around with magic. Well, if you were a child and had the ability to do out of ordinary things, of course you’d want to explore it. That is why when I do have kids, I am going to be brutally honest about the world we live in from the very beginning. I know it’s going to be hard and I would want them to be kids and not think about what this world has become. But it’s too dangerous to risk such a thing. Showing them and teaching them what people are capable of nowadays will prevent stories such as Easter’s happening. I will be telling them to not trust anybody besides family, to never go to a fortune teller because they manifest your future in a dark demonic way, to never get into hollywood as it is filled with selling one’s soul, to never pick up money from the crossroad of a street as it has magic on it, to never mess around with black magic and stay a 1,000 feet away from it, etc. This shows what type of a creature the devil is. He’d give you what you want at the moment, such as giving celebrities, the unlimited fame, popularity, money, etc but wants their soul in return. It breaks my heart knowing that so many people in Hollywood have chosen that life instead of eternal life with Christ. Don’t forget who brought you to this world!!!!

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Blog Post #4

I cannot begin to express the compassion and props I have to give the short film Danger Word. Even though it’s a short film, it has such a big message that people can get out of it. To begin with, why do you think her grandfather is teaching her how to shoot a gun at such a young age? Well, let me tell you, the world we live in is such a cruel world. I always have this saying of expect the unexpected.  We live in such a dirty world that even your own brother can turn around and point a gun at you. In this generation all people know how to use others, harm others, put others down, be disloyal, be violent, be cruel, etc.  I was born and raised in North Hollywood which is known as the city of no hope. Imagine wanting to raise your daughter there, of course you were going to have to introduce her to the dangerous world that this world has become. I'm sure it's not a pleasant thing to show young children the world we live in and not being able to trust anybody just like how the grandfather told her before he passed away and deep down just wanting to have them enjoy their childhood instead and play with dolls and not need to feed them the fact that this world isn't as pretty as they may think it is. When I have children I will also be raising them the way her grandfather did because every single night there is some type of citizen notification near my neighborhood for gang violence, shootings, robberies, etc. Her childhood reminds me a lot of mine and the way I grew up. A core memory I have  is being three years old and seeing all these writings on the walls and asking my mother what those are and what it means  but I was raised to mind my own business and not get involved.  if the grandfather hadn't shown her to survive, then she would've died with him.  he rolls her to be a strong girl because knowing that that's not really your grandfather at the end of the movie and needing to kill him in order to survive while he's looking at you in your eyes has got to be the most difficult thing there is to do; that is how strong people should raise their kids to be. I know it's not ideal and not a pleasant thing to do but unfortunately, this world that we live in isn't rainbows and sunshines.

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Blog Post #3

I would have never thought that a film would make me scared to look in the mirror and see a specific word. Although it’s a film that was showing, the way that Candyman haunted and ruined Helen’s life, I was left speechless. I watched this film very late at night and I couldn’t sleep after that. Not the fact that I’m not the one to get scared of anything especially films. But it’s the idea that she doubted Candyman being a real thing and just by seeing his name five times while looking at the mirror which is very accessible to anybody in this world, Her whole life was ruined.  I find it fascinating that he was attracted and stuck on the idea of Helen believing him just because she had the belief of Candyman not being real. I see the sign as masculinity and I compared it to a guy getting a girls. A guy isn’t amused by girls that he’s able to be with easily but the ones that play hard to get are the ones that the guy is going to be stuck on and for some reason, the most attracted to. I guess it might be this idea of wanting something that you don’t have and when you do have it you’re like okay whatever it wasn’t that much of a big deal as I thought it was. It’s like the idea of wanting a pool in your backyard. 99.9% of people including myself, would love to have a pool but nine out of 10 people who I’ve talked to and know once they’ve gotten their pool they don’t even go in it. My sister and I wanted a pool for the longest time and we ended up getting one in our backyard and we only went in it maybe four times within that year. I don’t know what type of psychology this is but human species tend to want things that they don’t or they can’t have. It’s the same concept as Candyman feeling like he has no power over Helen, although everybody else is scared of him and believes in him. That’s another reason why he did everything in his power to show her that he is real and he is in control not her. He could’ve killed and ruled 1000 lives by the time he ruined Helen‘s life and show her that he is real. Therefore, I believe that he was attracted with the fact that she didn’t believe that he was real and could take over her life.

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BLOG ASSIGNMENT #2

The blackening has got to be my favorite movie by far. To begin with, the first 5 minutes I was in a good mood as Shawn and Morgan had made me laugh with their commentaries on one another. But when it hit the 6 minute mark and they began to play the blackening and Shawn was already dead within the intro, I knew that this was going to be horrific. It hadn’t even been 20 minutes and the friend group was already being racially profiled. Since when are park rangers strict and even around much to have such strong accusations? Just to find out that he did accuse them because they were black, since this cabin gets rented out by “white people usually”. One thing that might be minimal to others but made me happy was the fact that king said his wife is Armenian; this is very accurate to recent society as more Armenians are beginning to marry other races which I find amazing. The way they were all excited to play games and were so into the card game reminded me of the way me and my friends are when we go on trips. We love playing games and we all get so competitive over them. At first, when they had all picked Clifton to get sacrificed I felt bad that they all decided on him all though he was never invited and isn’t part of their friend group. However, as the ending came, it took me by surprise that he was on to this the whole time. I did not even catch one clue that he might’ve been part of the whole plan and killing Shawn and Morgan; it caught me by surprise! What I found cool was the fact that their weapons came in handy including the chili powder spice which Allison said at the start “Girl, what am I finna do? Cook?” That line got me laughing so hard. There were so many moments when the characters would make one laugh and forget about the whole scenery that was going on. I believe that if this friend group didn’t love and care for one another, they would all just die within the first 5 minutes of playing the game. To begin with, they were all encouraging one another to answer the questions and putting pieces of answers together helped them get multiple questions right. Secondly, they didn’t sell one another out when the BlackFace tried multiple times to have them pick one another to sacrifice but they did not. I loved that so much because I believe that’s what true friendship looks like. It’s very hard to find such friends nowadays, especially such a big group and one another caring for each other and wanting all together to survive. I have a lot of respect for that and loyalty is something I truly value in friendships and take very seriously.

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BLOG ASSIGNMENT #1

My favorite piece provided so far from this course has to be The Comet. Even though it might be a short story, it shows and has a big message behind it. This story has made me think how when it comes to needing a black person’s help and not being/feeling alone in a post-apocalypse scenario, racism and class seem to be irrelevant and are put aside. This has shown me that when it’s life or death situations and when the only other person literally left on earth is a black person, you all of a sudden aren’t seeing colors and treat the person as a normal human being. What I truly liked about this short story was the fact that it shows a really important point: at the end of the day we are all the same human beings and will die one day; therefore being bonded together and supporting one another by looking past racial and social hierarchy is very important. You don’t know what somebody is going through and whether they are going through such post-apocalypse scenarios that life throws at them. Therefore, just like how Jim didn’t hesitate to stick to the white woman, we should be doing such things with everyone around us no matter one’s skin color. What left me in shock was right when people came back to the world, so did her perspective of racial profiling and class hierarchy. I don’t understand why she couldn’t continue to treat Jim like a normal human being? So she just used him during a terrifying situation and when she saw that people such as her father and fiance were returning, she shifted her relationship with him and blurred everything that went on out. This brought me to a conclusion that half of these people are racist due to other people being around them and making them feel the need to bring in inequality. I find it disgusting how this world cares so much about what other people think. Even in the short film Wake Shareline killed her own father just to get a handsome intelligent husband to show off to her community. I believe that half of these racist people become racist to fit in and “feel better about themselves” by putting others down due to the fact that they are insecure about themselves. One of the most demonic things in this world in my opinion is the amount of power people provide to give others good impressions. It will turn people into scumbags, racists, sexist, and cruel people that they weren’t before.