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Please, Momma

Please, Momma by Chesya Burke was an interesting, fictional read. I enjoyed reading this because of the expressive storytelling that allowed me to envision what was going on and feel sympathy for the characters. There were two aspects of the fiction that I immediately took notes of in the beginning:the descriptiveness of the storytelling and the dialogue. The vivid description of the story set the atmosphere for being gloomy, as the narrator describes the Auntie, who seems tired, and the description of the movement of the car, being indicative of the women’s tiredness and decreased driving abilities. The dialogue was confusing to begin with, especially since I was unable to tell who was talking, and when a person was talking because even the narration seemed to be a part of the dialogue as well. I then realized by the characters, momma, Sissy, and Auntie that it was a child talking. However, I did not realize who the little girl was truly talking to until the ending. Throughout the entirety of the reading, I believed she was talking to her twin sister, who was physically there. However, it was not until the end of the reading that I realized the young girl was communicating with her dead sister. That was a plot twist of the reading, but I am not sure if that was meant to be revealed at the end of the reading or if I had completely missed it. However, it was interesting to analyze the supernatural aspects of this reading that affects the main themes of suffering and grief. Although the twin sister had passed and was not physically there, her soul kept suffering because of her mother’s grief and unwillingness to let go over her little girl. Moreover, as explained in the reading, the passed little girl still had an impact on the physical world because her and her sister are twins; their souls are intertwined, but their bodies are separate as two. Overall, I enjoyed the reading because the plot and the great storytelling kept me captivated throughout. From what I understood, the moral of the story is that loss of a loved one, grief, and suffering can be extremely debilitating. Grief festers your mind and destroys you, making you unable to truly live your life. It is only once you let go that you will have a peace of mind. At the end, it was discovered that the mother suffered from the loss of her husband and her little girl, and there was an evil parasite that was eating her, emotionally and physically. It was not until the alive, twin girl had communicated with her deceased sister to let their mother know that it is best for the both of them if the mother found peace and let her soul go. 

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Blog #5, Analysis on "The Devil in America"

When I had initially read an original fiction, “The Devil in America,” I was confused by the direction of the conversations and who was holding the conversations. When I fully grasped how this fictional work was written, it was unique and saddening. Originally, I did not like how it was written, however, after reading it, I realized that with the author creating the work as a conversation between a father and his son, telling a historical story about Easter, it contributes greatly to the moral of the reading because there is a sense of intimacy that is drawn from parallels. An example of  a parallel is that the father discusses the history racial violence and discrimination against black people to his son, and he talks about the story of Easter, where in 1908, Easter’s family experiences racial violence as well. Another aspect I liked about this reading is that it emphasizes the ongoing racial violence that the black community continues to face. The father recounts violence to his son, spanning from 1955 to now, 2012. He discusses the death of Emmett Till, a classmate, Arthur McDuffie, and Trayvon [Martin]. With all of these names of black individuals that have been killed at the hands of racism, it shows that racism remains pervasive from as far as the father could remember it and until now. Despite this work being a fictional work, I liked how it incorporated real cases of injustices, adding great importance to the reading. The reading did not explicitly go into the cases of Emmet Till, Arthur McDuffie, and Travon Martin, however, I was able to search their names up and read about it. Reading about these real life tragedies evoked emotions of anger and sadness, and they were heartwrenching to read about. The case of Trayvon Martin was a case I have been familiar with, prior to reading this story. Ultimately, the author incorporating these real-life cases of racial injustices brings relevance and definitely engaged me with more of the reading. It also demonstrates the continuity of racial violence that continues to have the black community face racial violence. Lastly, I liked this black horror story because it successfully created emotions that sent chills down my spine, specifically the very ending of the reading. The story ends with Michael-Thomas grabbing a rifle and shooting and killing two black people in his front yard, and he casually swaps the rifle for his cane and heads back to his bed to rest immediately after killing them. This demonstrates how dehumanized white people were to killing black people and committing these acts of violence against them. Overall, I enjoyed this reading because of the emotions it provokes. 

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Blog #4

After learning about black horror in lecture, I learn about the new ways in which black horror evokes fear. Not only are the black horror movies scary through violence, gore, and jumpscares, it is ultimately and distinctly horrifying because of the flagrant racism and racial stereotypes. Examining what we talked about in lecture, in the film “The Birth of a Nation,” a white woman is threatened by black men. From this film, it perpetuates the racial stereotype Black men are aggressive and innately aggressive. This portrayal of black men feeds into the idea that Black men are inherently criminals, leading to the unceasing discrimination against them. Straying from the plot of the film, these “black men” were actually played by white men doing black face, which compounds the racism and racial stereotypes. By doing black face, not only are these white actors dehumanizing black people, but they choose to weaponize the skin color of black people to mock and villainize them in the film. Moreover, with the entirety of the plot of Candyman (1992), it was interesting to learn that the villainous origin of Candyman was that he was a black man who fell victim to racial attacks. Following Helen Lyle through Cabrini-Green and the entirety of the film, we witness the effects of gentrification and white real-estate, which produces housing problems that disproportionately affect black people. Aside from violence and gore of Candyman, the horror is presented by the cycle of violence, poverty, and housing issues that are created by white people and gentrification. With the planning of Cabrini-Green, we saw the clear segregation between white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods, which is separated by a highway and the obvious dilapidated conditions. In the new Candyman (2021) film, we explore racism in the context of police brutality and social injustices. At the end of the film, Anthony McCoy becomes Candyman himself and symbolically displays himself as a shield and weapon against police brutality. The police arrive at the scene, as Anthony McCoy had manifested the body of Candyman, with a hook forcibly placed on his hand. With the police arriving at the scene, and shooting Anthony McCoy, who is demonstrating no signs of aggression or danger, and Brianna, who is visibly worried for Anthony, the police still shoot him. This scene, out of many, demonstrates the unnecessary violent force police exert on black people. At the end, Candyman kills the police, ultimately metaphorically showing himself as a weapon against police brutality. 

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Blog #3

Candyman (1992) and Candyman (2021) were phenomenal horror films. I had only watched Candyman (2021) as assigned, and a few months back, but I did not know there was the original Candyman (1992). Within both of the films, old and new, I found similarities where the films focus on housing projects and gentrification. An interesting concept about both films is the main character’s longing to know more about Candyman, so much so that they become Candyman themselves. Although Helen Lyle appears to be the main character and protagonist of the 1992 film, I personally believe that she was not either a protagonist or a villain. Helen Lyle saves a kid from the Candyman, however, at the end, she ends up becoming the Candyman. Moreover, in the new Candyman film, the film follows Anthony McCoy, who is an artist and becomes investigative about Candyman after hearing the story about Helen Lyle, who kidnapped a kid and went on a massacre. One that stood out to me in the 1992 film was about forbidden, interracial love, which I did not see in the newer film.It was interesting to watch these new and old films intertwine, as Anthony McCoy learns about Helen Lyle before the myth about Candyman is unveiled to him. Another idea I have about the two films is that the new Candyman is a sequel to the first one, in which some may believe the 2021 version is meant to replace or be a remade film. In the beginning of the new Candyman film when Anthony McCoy becomes engrossed with the urban legend, Candyman, he pushes out a new art piece for the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. With the ongoing police brutality that has been transpiring within the United States, his newest art project is inspired by police brutality, where he put images of police brutality occurring behind words that encourage people to say Candyman. At the end of the film, we are able to witness the police brutality that Jordan Peele wants to display. At the end of the film, I believe Jordan Peele demonstrates the police brutality that Black people have long suffered from within the United States. At the end, Anthony McCoy, who is visibly seen with a weapon, the hook, on him is shot by the police, which was completely unnecessary. He looked harmless with his hands showing, and he was with the woman who had initially called the police. Despite her extremely close proximity to Anthony and her pleading for help, the police continue to shoot Anthony, displaying the rampant police brutality within the United States. 

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Blog #3

The film Us by Jordan Peele is another phenomenal black horror film. I had watched this during the COVID-19 pandemic on Netflix, unknowingly it was made by Jordan Peele until now, so I had to rewatch it. Although not explicitly stated or conventionally shown in the film, Us demonstrates racial issues that are paralleled in the real world, which could be compared to Jordan Peele’s other film, Get Out. In the film Us, we are introduced to the average, well-off family, known as the Wilson family. The horror twist of the film is that they have their home broken into by The Tethers, who are their doppelgangers. These doppelgangers try to harm and kill the family, and eerily, The Tethers are not only their doppelgangers, but are heavily intertwined with each family member, almost as if they were an exact copy of each other. The Tethers are the Wilson’s doppelgangers that are from an underground world, who are poor and neglected. They arise from the underground world to take over the Wilson’s family’s identities, which is heavily symbolic of inequalities in the United States. Us depicts two families that are identical, however, have drastic differences in their socioeconomic statuses and privileges. Although the film displays two families that are black, this film as a whole could be seen as a metaphor for racial inequality. Comparing this to the film Get Out, the film is clearly about race, however, it focuses on the exploitation of black people and their bodies, as Jordan Peele examines the manipulation the main character, Chris, undergoes. An interesting comparative analysis I have made for both films is the silencing of black voices. In Us, The Tethers are subjected to the underground world that is neglected and impoverished, and they are hidden away in the shadows. It was not until The Tethers had broken into the Wilson’s home and essentially revolted by trying to kill them is when they may have a chance of living a life of privilege and prosperity. Similarly, in the film Get Out, black people’s voices were silenced by two main ways: control over their body and The Sunken Place. Clearly, in the film, we see black people being oppressed and having their bodies in full control of white people. Moreover, The Sunken Place, which is the hypnotic trance that Missy puts Chris in demonstrates silencing black voices. When Missy hits the tea cup with a spoon, Chris falls into The Sunken Place, falling deeper into a black void, losing control over his body, and losing his voice. Overall, these two films by Jordan Peele are amazing watches with symbolic and metaphorical message throughout the movies. 

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Blog Post #1: Black Horror

Jordan Peele's black horror film, Get Out, was one of my first black horror films I have watched, and it was filled with many unsuspected turns. I had coincidentally scrolled through Netflix and watched this film during winter break a couple weeks before class started, so I had emotions of surprise and serendipity. With this being my first black horror film, I cannot compare it to other black horror films, but I have to say this film did an outstanding job with evoking vibrant emotions of fear, suspense, and most definitely shock. This film by Jordan Peele was a psychological rollercoaster, and throughout the movie, I had shifted my attention to other uncanny details of the movie and was later confronted with other mind-blowing details. The film began with introducing us to the two main characters, Chris and Rose, who were displaying their very warm and loving relationship. Eventually, Rose thought it was time to introduce Chris to her family. Throughout the film, Rose demonstrates this unconditional love towards Chris, however, it was emotionally harrowing to discover that this was all a facade, despite the love seeming authentic, for Rose to trap Chris and essentially auction him off to white people. As Rose and Chris are on their way to their parents house, there was an incident with a deer and a police officer arrived at the scene, where he racially profiled Chris, but Rose, a white woman, had come into his defense and told the officer that was unnecessary. Chris was in awe of Rose for doing that for him, despite him not really caring for having to show the police his ID. This part later serves as a paradoxical turn in the film, because Rose’s malicious intent for having Chris at her family’s house was to auction him off and eventually rob him of his body. As they arrived at Rose’s family’s house in the suburbs, there was immediately an eerie scene, where a black man, who I later discovered to be Rose’s grandfather, was creepily staring at Chris. This man was named Walter and he was introduced to Chris as one of the house workers, as well as another black woman, Georgina. Throughout the film, Chris is fixated on their weirdness, and so was I as I watched it. Jordan Peele did an amazing job with putting the audience in the shoes of the character, because even I could not predict the ending. Eventually, I had figured out what was going on in the film and it left my mouth wide open, because this was the most unsuspected turn of events. I had my speculation when the auctioning occurred during the film, but I officially confirmed it when Chris went into Rose’s closet and found pictures of endless black men she had been with, including Andre. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie had me literally screaming in my head “get out!” and left me in shock. 

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An interesting topic that we have discussed as of recent are the themes that arose in the reading “Walking Awake.” The themes are loss of agency, the price of comfort built on the discomfort/abuse of others, and revolution. Specifically discussing my personal experiences, as well as my peers, an experience that is almost universal to all of us is the loss of agency. A lot of my friends and I absolutely feel a terrible feeling of having no control over our lives, especially during this stage in our lives right now. Some of my friends, including myself, have taken the college pathway and are in charge of paying for our own tuition and housing, leading to an insurmountable amount of loans taken out at our, relatively, young age. Moreover, many of us resonate with not feeling passionate about our major and our future career pathways, as many of our family members have pushed us down a path that would be profitable. Albeit the potential of a future career being financially lucrative, it is not emotionally gainful, as many of us are not content with what we study in university. This leads to the next theme of the price of comfort built on the discomfort/abuse of others, in which a majority of the world is trapped in a vicious, never-ending cycle of being pawns under a capitalist regime. Likewise, a stressful part of my life at the age of 19 is not understanding what I would do in the future, worrying about working for the rest of my life, paying off an unassailable amount in loans, and never truly being able to pursue my passions in fear of not being financially stable. Specifically in the United States and described vaguely and through a narrow scope, capitalism within the United States is dominated by business owners, otherwise known as the top 1%, who monopolize millions of people. These business owners within the United States are making an absurd amount of money, meanwhile their workers are working under poor working conditions and hardly getting paycheck to paycheck, with a practically unlivable wage. This leads into the next theme of revolution, in which I believe a revolution is necessary to dismantle capitalism and the oppressive regime. I believe that the standard of living for people right now is bad, and the only way to overturn the system is to revolt. As people remain subservient and unwilling to revolt, it would be impossible to provoke change.

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blog 5

A topic that we discussed in Thursday’s lecture that intrigued me is the topic of a utopian society. Currently, I believe that the state of the world is crippling and dystopian, and we are extremely far away from achieving a utopian society. We are so far that I think a utopian society is seemingly impossible. The definitions of what a utopian society is may vary from person to person, however, my envisionment of a utopian society is one where no one is suffering and they have their needs met, as well as nature being intact. Contrastingly, as a person who lives in the United States, these criterias are not being fulfilled. To begin, we live in a capitalistic society, where I believe the class division is between two classes: the upper class and the lower class. The latter is which a majority of us are a part of, where we are subject to work for the entirety of our lives, at the bare minimum of a hardly liveable wage. WIthin the city of Los Angeles itself, at every corner, I see homeless people, and as a part of the regular working class, there is not much we could do monetarily. It is very disheartening to see how people are being dehumanized and treated as a lesser of a human. The United States is much higher up on the global value chain, but outside of the United States, for countries that are at the very bottom, they are subject to exploitation and horrific working conditions. These industries and corporations are nearly the sole and largest contributors to human-driven climate change, in which our planet is getting decimated. Large factories mass produce products, which in turn leads to issues such as high carbon emissions and unnecessary production of non-biodegradable materials like plastic. Ultimately, I have noticed that the weather in California has been hectic, as climate change takes a toll on all parts of the world. Where days are supposed to be beamingly sunny and warm, there has been a concerning amount of rainfall, cold weather, and gloomy skies for the summer season. Watching news articles that report on the state of the world, it is truly depressing to see the rising sea levels, animals increasingly becoming endangered, a rise in natural disasters, and overall the health of the planet declining quickly. I believe that there should be collective action taken immediately to achieve a utopian world. Though this is a controversial topic, I believe that capitalism kills people and kills the planet. Achieving a utopian world begins with a collective perception that life is dystopian, and there should be action taken to take steps closer to achieving a utopian society. 

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Blog #4

One of the topics that we have discussed this past week that deeply interested me was AI. In lecture, we watched a video on Sophia, an artificial intelligence robot, that was being interviewed by a conference of people, and they were able to converse fluently and well. With the growing use of AI programs, such as ChatGPT, many have found AI to be a powerful and useful tool. Furthermore, people are looking into implementing AI in other things, such as robots, as demonstrated by Sophia in the clip, as well as her ability to even gain citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Throughout witnessing examples of AI, I got quite unnerved because AI has been around for a while, but it has recently made a greater breakthrough in society. Platforms such as ChatGPT is already seemingly a tool that many people champion behind, and the tool itself seems to be extremely powerful and impressively answers questions for people. This has caused me to wonder where society is heading as a result of AI, and I believe the consequences could both be positive and negative, though I would rather not have AI get too advanced to the point of consciousness, as demonstrated by Sophia in the clip. Though this is an irrational fear, hopefully one that remains irrational, AI that are depicted in sci-fi, horror films have all turned out bad. Understandably, AI could be used to our advantage, but we have not explored the realms and peaks of AI to see if it could be so advanced that it makes itself conscious. As of recently, I recall reading a news article that was talking about new advancements in AI, in which the AI was able to wire to the human brain to produce graphics of what the human eyes were seeing. By far, this was described to be one of the videos produced with the greatest yet resolution, as compared to what scientists have tried to produce. This was a potentially great breakthrough in the mixture of science and technology, but this reminded me of an episode from the TV show, Black Mirror, which is a dystopian, sci-fi film. In this episode, the characters in the film was able to replicate essentially what AI has done. There has been an eerie similarity between the show and futuristic AI, which has made me have mostly negative feelings about AI. Ultimately, our brief time discussing AI in lecture this past week has been a very interesting discourse. 

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Blog #3

A couple of the topics we have discussed that stood out to me are “past is prologue,” and adjacently, how time, specifically the past, is of significant importance, and the afrofuturistic aspects that are centralized around the film Daughters of Dust by Julie Dash. The topics that were derived from this film were extremely interesting and insightful, especially delving into the importance of the past, and how the past, present, and future exist together. In regards to time, this film also demonstrated the importance of looking back in the past and its conflict to encourage moving forward and towards a better future. For example, a character in the film, Nana Peazant, is very connected to the past and believes that her family should stay on their island to honor their ancestors and to keep their traditions alive. However, other family members disagree, such as Yellow Mary, and they believe that living in the past is not good because they would be unable to flourish if they do not leave their island. This was proven to be false in the film as the characters later learned that they are always connected to their past, and that their past serves a pivotal role in their lives. By understanding their cultural traditions, roots, and rituals, it allowed for characters of the film to have a sense of identity and belonging to their past and people. To begin, some afrofuturistic characterizations of this film is that it was the first national distribution by a black woman, in which Julie Dash was the first black woman to have a general release film, which was brought into limelight when the Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry. Another aspect of this film were the Black traditions, in which we see people in this film returning to their roots, which was the island. This allowed for the characters in the film to cultivate a stronger bond with and more love for their ancestors, as well as giving them the gentle reminder and encouragement to revive and sustain their motherland, culture, and traditions. Overall, this film has enlightened me as it emphasizes how the past, present, and future all co-exist. The power and strength of the characters' ancestors that delivered them wisdom and knowledge guided them through a journey of self-discovery, as well as embracing the past and learning from mistakes that opened more opportunities for them in the future. 

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Two real life issues that make it necessary to create my Earthseed community is the ongoing gun violence and climate change. 

“A tree / Cannot grow / In its parents’ shadow” (Butler, 1993, p. 82). This first verse will apply to our community by understanding that change is necessary, and that we should not remain complacent. Just like our parents, who often reminisce on the ‘good old days,’ fail to recognize that our society may not be as great as it was before. We must not remain naive, but recognize aspects of our society that need change. “Embrace diversity. / Unite— / Or be divided, / robbed, / ruled, / killed / By those who see you as prey. / Embrace diversity / Or be destroyed” (Butler 1993, p. 170). This second verse reminds our community to treat everyone equally. No one is lesser and no one is greater than any other. Rather, if we do not unite as people together, we will be divided and violence will occur. 

Ideally, I will create my Earthseed community in a forest away from modern society, where nature thrives, such as rivers, trees, animals, waterfalls, sunlight, and rain. Ideally, everyone is free to join our community. I hope that our community is able to cultivate open-mindedness, integrity, empathy and sympathy, and overall kindness. However, people that are not allowed to join the community are those who have the intention to harm others and are not willing to change for the betterment of society. 

For our earthseed community, there is not one person that assumes the leadership role in particular. I believe that everyone should have a say in everything that goes on in the community. My community would have a set of “rules” that are more like a set of morals that people should consider before making a decision for the community. A future technology that I would create is a machine that creates day-to-day objects out of sustainable material that could be reused back into the environment. For example, we use a lot of plastic containers, and I would hope that the machine is capable of making a sustainable item out of materials, such as leaves. Our Earthseed community will survive by cultivating a community of kindness and empathy, where we all live communal lives, and have the best interest in mind for everyone else. In order for our Earthseed community to create a better future, we will take the steps to reforming education, with the intention of educating people, and as equally important, fostering true passion about education. When the people of the community are fully educated, it would help us better manage our health, and our overall community. 

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The Space Traders by Derrick Bell Blog Post

Derrick Bell’s short story, The Space Traders, is a fictional story that incorporated Afrofuturism of a dystopian America, where the prospect of enslavement of African Americans continued in the future. I found this short film extremely fascinating because Derrick Bell expressed the implications of racism on the future and brought light to important theories, including Critical Race Theory and Interest Convergence Theory. 

In The Space Traders, Bell incorporated Black history with science fiction. The short film begins with aliens from space proposing a trade with Americans on earth. In exchange for African American people, the aliens will offer the country riches, such as gold and precious metals, and new technology that would drastically improve the standard of living of everyone. One fascinating aspect about this short film was that the space traders and their offers bore very similar resemblance to the United State’s past. The people in the film were quickly in favor of accepting the trade, which was the exchange of Black Americans for advancements in technology and economic prosperities.  Albeit the history of the United States, there is an uncanny repetition. In America’s abhorrent past of slavery, white people had committed unspeakable crimes against Black Americans and exploited them throughout history. In The Space Traders, this mistake and racist heritage was seemingly going to continue. When the offer was made by extraterrestrial life, the only people that demonstrated immediate opposition to the offer were Black Americans. This part of the story exhibited Derrick Bell’s theory of interest convergence. In this dystopian future, the lives of African Americans are jeopardized and are put on the trading table. Since the lives of white people are not in danger, they were able to accept the offer with ease and no hesitation because it merely benefited them and selfishly harmed Black people. In the short film when the cabinet were discussing the trade offer, every person was looking at the trade through the lens of economic and environmental pros and cons. Golightly, a black politician, who proclaimed himself to be a conservative, was in disagreement with the trade because it was not morally right. This shows the repetition of history where white people viewed Black people as a commodity for their own benefit. In this case, the white politicians are considering accepting the trade offers from the aliens for economic and environmental benefits and framing their mistreatment of African Americans as a necessity for the ‘greater good.’