not-ick-rastley-blog

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So, yeah. Luke Cage is the topic of this one. Obviously, this isn't directly related to issues involving race or discrimination as many other shows might. Instead, this post is meant to pose a question: how thin is the line between representing a culture and appropriating or stereotyping against one. To open, I'd like to say that I believe that Luke Cage is a show that attempts to represent the culture of inner city life with as much accuracy as possible, though there may very well be one or two assumptions that are being made about said culture. To oversimplify, Luke Cage revolves around a superhuman black fugitive in Harlem, through sheer circumstance, becoming deeply immersed in the arms trafficking and gang conflicts in the area. The show has racial themes strongly stated right off the bat, such as how the coucilwoman Mariah is calling for a Black Harlem, and how her cousin/associate Cottonmouth often has an argument with her in the second episode about their heritage and what their ancestors would want. He wants to bring forth "black money" and black people having their own sense of power, whereas Mariah goes on about how rebuilding Harlem to a better standard (you know, the white one) will bring that sense of power over gun trafficking and murder. Going off of this context, I feel like many things are done right. The residents of the city that we see consists predominantly of minorities, mostly black but also including asians and latinos. At the very least in the pilot, the city was reminiscent of what one might find in a large city: street vendors attempting to sell things that could very well be purchased for cheaper in other venues, crowded streets, lot of small local shops (those are what I noticed at least). On the opposite end, it feels like almost every individual we meet in the neighborhood is either from a gang or has some variant of gang affiliation. Also, the fact that the main hangout for the entire area is a barbershop seems like something out of... well, Barbershop. The gang goings-ons that we see on the screen also seem very reminiscent of 1930's mafia business than how gang warfare is normally perceived. On an over-analytical note, the character of Luke Cage, the good guy, seems to have a fairly suburban-white accent, while the thugs (bad guys) have a more traditionally black urban accent and vernacular. Coincidence? Some of this may be altering things to fit the source material's narrative or mere happenstance, but there is also room to argue that it's just negligent stereotyping on the part of writers. So that's where I pass off the question: does Luke Cage lean towards the side of exposure awareness or does it lean more towards minstrel show blackface levels of awareness. I believe that it's attempting to be aware of Harlem's context and portray it accurately, but maybe with a few slip ups. The subject, however, is up to interpretation.

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For my social media, I decided to dive into twitter and found the hashtag "no cop academy" (#nocopacademy). This hashtag originates from Chicago, where the local government has recently approved for $95 million to go towards the Chicago police academy. This left many Chicago residents in a state of confusion and frustration, including resident and popular hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper. Chance the Rapper was the one who initiated the creation of this hashtag, and did more than just mention his disdain passively on twitter. He actually went out of his way to make it to a City Council meeting to speak with the mayor and legislatures to encouraging shifting that $95 million towards the CPS system, where he claims this funding would be put to better use. The decision was made to push the police academy funding forwards with a vote of 48-1. I'd say this is very relevant to our civil rights conversations recently, at least from a public perspective. While people can argue that funneling more money into police training would allow for reduced crime rates and inherently better training (false, by the way), the public that is directly impacted can also see this as the very same people that discriminate against them publicly by their color through their actions receiving even more funds to encourage this behavior. In many of our civil rights conversations, the issue of providing education to everyone equally is a big issue, and this issue can be seen as the snuffing out of the resources that can be geared towards equal opportunity and instead giving it to those that are seen as oppressors. Opinion time: While I am in full support of a diligent and watchful police system, particularly in high crime areas which unfortunately are often in black urban neighborhoods, I believe that the nonstop throwing of money at the police is not the best way to go about maintaining this. Better education does not mean more money when you already have ample resources. If they need more resources, by all means provide, but $95 million is more than a little excessive. It's almost negligent. CPS and other inner city education systems are constantly short on funds and access to the tools and teachers required to stay current and provide the best education possible for students. The people in opposition to this decision have even done the math themselves and started posting against it with what else this money could be used to fund. These conversations are a thing that need to happen regularly, keeping everyone informed on the issues that are going on and what can be done about it. More importantly though, there need to be more people like Chance going out there actively making the effort to talk to these politicians about these decisions through civil letters, emails and phone calls.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoCopAcademy?src=hash

https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/chance-the-rapper-blasts-planned-95-million-police-academy-456177663.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-chance-rapper-council-address-20171108-story.html

[not-ick-rastley-blog]

The movie I watched was a documentary called Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene. As suggested, the documentary speaks about the life of Petey Greene, an ex-convict and drug addict who worked his way into getting his own local radio show and eventually getting a talk show, providing a voice to and for the African American community in the Washington D.C. area in from about 1966-1981. Greene was known both for addressing the issues of his community, including subjects such as high incarceration rates of African Americans and the lack of public housing for the impoverished, as well as going out in the community himself and interacting with people, such as how he would go about after the MLK assassination and attempt to calm rioters. Greene brought about interesting conversations about issues in the black community, for the language he used was predominantly shock language; he got people engaged with his vulgar language and big statements while hosting his show, and through that was able to communicate his message to his audience. Despite the shock value, his audience and community identified with him in a way that they couldn't with other radio/talk show hosts. Greene openly spoke of his follies and his life experiences in the ghettos of D.C. and used these to connect with his audience and also to prove points to those that challenge him though his experiences. Portraying something extreme to get a message across or to evoke a feeling is something seen in reflection 3's videos, in regards to how people portrayed an extreme of the perception of indigenous peoples and used that as a means to demonstrate how people view those peoples and how they become objectified. though the means and the message aren't exactly the same, Greene follows the pattern of speaking in a way that shocks his viewers into attention.Greene's conversations and interviews had a vast audience, even earning him a dinner with President Carter. Though he primarily spoke of issues within the black community, he also spoke of topics such as domestic violence and equality for people of all races and education opportunities, and also hitting controversial issues such as whether or not race is something that should be recognized or not. This was a major feat at the time, coming out of an era where only a decade or so previously there were still Jim Crow laws in effect. This all ended when he died of cancer in '82, but his impact will not be forgotten in D.C.

“Petey Greene - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia.” Alchetron.com, 25 Sept. 2017, alchetron.com/Petey-Greene-805828-W.

janeharr. “In honor of black history month, i give you petey greene.” Janestown, 21 Feb. 2011, www.janestown.net/2011/02/in-honor-of-black-history-month-i-give-you-petey-greene/.

“Talk To Me.” The Museum Of UnCut Funk, 13 May 2013, museumofuncutfunk.com/2009/04/19/talk-to-me/.