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Media Blog 3
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) website is a website that is dedicated to informing everybody about activism, resources, their mission, data and more surrounding black matters. The NAACP’s biggest focus is fighting racial inequality and providing resources for underserved black communities. The website relates to our course topics, readings and screenings because we learned a lot about the discrimination against members of the black community, something that the NAACP was and is trying to fight to this day.
The website represents racial identities by rightfully recognizing them as a group that has been at a disadvantage forever. The NAACP fights to give back power back to the black community. It generates a conversation about racial history, and what can be done to rewrite the future based on past injustices by recognizing that discrimination exists and openly talking about the black experience. Looking at the 30 Americans website, many artists depict themselves and their experiences being black. I think that in their own ways, the NAACP and the 30 Americans piece aim to demonstrate the same thing: enrich others by sharing information. One photograph of the exhibit is of KKK hats on stools, something that is a powerful reminder of history. Gregory Jay’s text, “Who Invented White People?” is a dive into systemic racism. Jay states, “Banks regularly discriminate against minorities in business and housing loans. Homeowners and apartment owners refuse to sell or rent across color lines, partly because of the threats and violence that still occur when they do. Parents express discomfort when or outright rage when children love or marry across the lines of race.” This piece relates to the NAACP website because the things Jay discusses being issues are things that the organization is trying to eradicate. In the same text, Jay also argues, “What has happened, I think, is that we have instead created a blindness to whiteness, or been blinded to whiteness itself.” Both Jay and the NAACP find that the privilege that whites have has been and is very apparent. White power has taken over everything and it’s something that affects everybody in some sense.
The NAACP website relates to the course because as a class we have had many discussions on race and representation. Rightfully, the NAACP paints the black community as a group that deserves equal rights, no matter if anybody is mixed, underserved, underprivileged, etc. There is no discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, religion, etc. but rather a focus on bringing everybody in the community up. The website shows that anybody and everybody can and should care to create a safe and just country.
Sources:
30 Americans (rubellmuseum.org)
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Media Blog 2
Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, follows different characters during a heatwave in Brooklyn. The film focuses on racial tension between different groups of people, specifically the employees and owner of a local pizza shop (Sal’s), the police, and the community members. The film relates to our class content because of its conversation on identity, race, and violence against racial groups, specifically black people.
The dynamic between the community members and Sal, Pino and Vito, reminds me of Richard Dyer’s text, “On the Matter of Whiteness”. In the text, Dyer discusses the concept of white people being labeled as just people, and not labeled like others. Dyer states, “There is no more powerful position than that of being “just” human. Raced people can’t do that一they can only speak for their race. But nonraced people can, for they do not represent the interests of a race” (301). To the black residents, Sal, Pino and Vito just get to exist, and it is the same viewpoint that a lot of nonwhite people understand. Dyer and Do The Right Thing try to communicate the message that if you’re white, it doesn’t matter if you’re Italian, German, etc. because you’re just white, but if you’re black, it matters because there’s a divide. The film speaks on a time where a majority of people were not “post-racial” as Dom Apollon calls it. The film represents a time where whites, specifically those with power and/or authority, were extremely focused on creating narratives that didn’t exist. It was also a time where many were caught between their jobs and class, and their race. Mookie is a good representative of this. He works at Sal’s but is defensive of how people of his race are being treated.
Looking at Margaret Rozga’s piece about the March on Milwaukee, Lee’s film relates because of its obvious moments of violence, discrimination and fights for justice. Rozga highlights the riots of the NAACP. Similar to the Milwaukee riots, Lee displays rioting after Radio Raheem faces injustice. There is also a conversation going on about police brutality because the police are the reason Raheem dies. In both the article and the film, the whites and blacks are two forces working against each other, with limited exceptions (Father Groppi). The character Smiley is also displayed walking around with tapes of Dr. MLK, Malcolm X, etc. playing. The intersectionality between religion and respective race is significant to the film and to the Civil Rights movement in terms of power and moral justice.
Sources:
Sal and Pino - YouTube
March on Milwaukee digital collection tells the story of struggle for equality
Spike Lee Do the right Thing – Analysis of the riot scene – Au cas ou ça t'aiderais (aucasoucataideraisca.com)
Do The right thing. Radio raheem's death - YouTube
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Media Blog One
My selection was the 2019 T.V series, When They See Us. The show follows the arrests, prosecutions and futures of the Central Park 5. There are four parts that move chronologically through time. The series relates to our course topics, readings and screenings because the entire case was based in misconceptions and racism. The course dives into how to identify and eliminate the biases that were ultimately the boys’ downfall.
When They See Us represents racial identity as a victim or a cause. In terms of the Central Park 5, being black was the only cause that the police and court used to justify the boys as guilty. Calling back to Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege Checklist”, one of the statements is “If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.” I think that McIntosh’s recognition of an institute (law enforcement) racially discriminating is significant because it is the same thing depicted in the T.V series and is a real reason that the boys (and many others) have faced false imprisonment. Sturken and Cartwright also reference the Emmett Till case, writing that, “The highly publicized funeral, which brought 50,000 mourners, and the graphic photograph of Till’s brutalized body, which was published in Jet magazine, were major catalysts of the nascent civil rights movement” (11). There are many parallels to be drawn between both cases. One is the false accusation(s) against innocent black boys, another is the unjust treatment of them by white people and the “justice” system, another being the media coverage. Despite both cases holding heavy significance within society, it is reflected that lots of Americans have not learned how to separate criminality and skin color. The T.V series allows for the same conversation to be had, because it should be had again. Discussions about systemic racism and white privilege are and always will be imperative.
My selection relates to the course readings, screenings and discussions because there is intersectionality, like Gregory Jay mentioned in his expository essay, “What is Multiculturalism?” The boys in When They See Us are black and American. Race and nationality are shown colliding and how that collision can be dangerous in the eyes of society. Intersectionality was also shown when the characters talked about money. None of the families of the boys’ were rich and it was displayed how money, race and nationality worked together to help the system find a reason to oppress them.
Sources:
Till Photo: https://www.meridianstar.com/news/state/see-the-photo-emmett-tills-mother-wanted-you-to-see----the-one/article_128593d9-e08c-5b52-95e6-e53cc00b1031.html
Central Park 5 Photo: Opinion | We Are the ‘Exonerated 5.’ What Happened to Us Isn’t Past, It’s Present. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
WTSU Trailer: (1) WHEN THEY SEE US Official Trailer (HD) Ava DuVernay Central Park Five Series - YouTube
NPR article: Wrongful convictions disproportionately affect Black Americans, report shows : NPR
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