Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
December 1, 2018 at 8:31 pm #2845QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>This week, our discussions focus on the LGBT group and their right to marriage. Based on what we learned in class, there are two images that I want to share for this week’s topic. The first photo exhibits a group of protests celebrating outside the Supreme Court after hearing that the Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The protesters held signs such as “Married with Pride” with the picture of themselves (a gay couple). Their signs captured my attention because they revealed the LGBT protesters’ truest thoughts and aspirations. They wish they could not only be able to marry but more importantly marry with pride and be treated, respected, and blessed as other heterosexual couples. I believe LGBT is not only a vital issue in the United States but also deserves global concern. Thus, the second photo demonstrates the LGBT movement in Europe but shared the similar message as the U.S. protesters. It portrays a group of male models attend a Drag Walk casting contest in Berlin. They participated in the Christopher Street Day gala show on the evening of the CSD parade, an annual European LGBT event. The male models dressed up with dresses and high-heeled shoes with women’s makeup and hairstyle. The model at the front wore wings with colors of the rainbow that symbolized LGBT unity, pride, and shared values. Both images emphasize the LGBT group’s pride of their identification and their struggles for equality and rights. Moreover, protests and parades are two effective ways for the LGBT group to demonstrate their rights and draw public attention to make more changes even though their fight will be a long process. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: Pete Marovich June 26, 2013 from Stars and Stripes; China Daily May 18, 2013</span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
November 24, 2018 at 10:29 am #2682QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>This week we continued to discuss about illegality and civil rights. The image I chose is a fictitious driver license for an undocumented Mexican immigrant in California. The address indicates Los Angeles but the title of the license specifies “Mexifornia” instead of California. Also, the date of birth of the immigrant is “not known” while the expiry date of the license is “never”. It means that the government classifies the undocumented immigrant as an illegal alien (as shown in the license) without caring about his identity or personal information. From these ironic indications, we know that even though some states such as California allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver license, these immigrants are still far from being fully accepted and respected by the US society. This fictitious license reminds me of our reading and class discussion about the Filipino American journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. He illustrates his life under fear due to the lack of legal status and proper documentation in his account “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”. As for Vargas, valid documents such as passport, green card, and social security number were so crucial in all aspects of his life in the United States. As he claimed in his article, “The license meant everything to me — it would let me drive, fly and work.” His illustration of all the troubles and predicaments he faced because of his immigrant status are demonstrated in a similar way as in the fictitious driver license. However, fortunately, Vargas became a journalist with his striking courage and persistent struggle against his fate. His success was not only a giant step for himself but also a significant step for all the undocumented or discriminated immigrants. Even though Vargas’ achievement of becoming an influential journalist with undocumented immigrant identity may not be common among the immigrants, his fortitude to overcome all the obstacles associated with his legal status has been a significant exemplar to encourage more undocumented immigrants.</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: the image if from mexifornialicenses.com in 2007 but does not indicate the artists</span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
November 17, 2018 at 4:51 pm #2519QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>From our class discussion and the reading “Deportation Policy and the Making and Unmaking of Illegal Aliens”, we learned about the disparity between the desirable and undesirable immigrants. When I read the article, I had similar questions about the U.S. Border Patrol as the author Dr. Ngai, “How did the officers know the difference between an alien and a citizen?”. How can they make an accurate and fair judgment just by distinguishing people through their physical appearance? Similarly, the cartoon “Illegal Canadian” depicts five U.S. immigrants in Alabama, four white men with shirts and ties and a farmer with darker skin and mediocre dressing. The cartoon asks: Which is the illegal alien in Alabama? Unsurprisingly, the answer indicates that the rightmost white man who dresses formally is actually an illegal Canadian. However, just by looks, the first person that the officer suspects is the man with darker skin. I choose this cartoon because it reflects the social desirability in American society and the idea that white immigrants are superior to other immigrants, such as Latinos, Asians, Arabs etc. As we discussed in class, classifying the undocumented individuals as illegal aliens severely discriminated and criminalized the immigrants who lack paperwork. However, the modern concept of illegality seems to target immigrants based more on their origin and appearance than their status (whether or not they are documented). As our reading reveals, “the application and reform of deportation policy had disparate effects on Europeans and Canadians, on the one hand, and Mexicans, on the other hand.”. There are inherent hierarchy and inequality in the society: Canadians and Europeans are more likely to be accepted, respected, and welcomed as citizens whether or not they are documented. However, even citizens from Asia, Latin America, and Arab countries are more likely to be discriminated, stereotyped, and excluded. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: Blogspot “Immigrants and Undocumented Workers” by Bill Day on March 30th, 2012 </span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
November 10, 2018 at 4:32 pm #2364QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The sarcastic caricature is from the article “Guess Who Concocted the War on Terror Doctrine Before 9/11?” from The Freedom Articles. It depicts a U.S. government officer stamps “terrorist” on every baby that comes from Gaza, a place with riots and chaos (as the cartoon portrays). The caricature satires the legalized Islamophobia and its injustice against innocent non-citizens who have been suspected of terrorism even if they never personally engaged in any criminal activities. According to the article, Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli politician and the inventor of the War on Terror doctrine had already demonstrated legal and moral justifications for war against the Palestinians and other Muslim-majority nations in his speech before 9/11. After 9/11, President George W. Bush further enshrined Netanyahu’s War on Terror as an official U.S. policy and ideology. Through such ideology, as the caricature reveals, any person who is born in Gaza has been labeled as a terrorist by the U.S. government and the media. They have been considered as threats to the U.S. national security and been marginalized through the legalized discrimination. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>I choose this caricature because it reveals the negative stereotype and unfair discrimination against Arab and Muslims. Before coming to the United States, I sometimes also unintentionally associated some Islamic states with danger and violence due to various propaganda from the media. Even though I was not familiar with the history of 9/11, I had been influenced by various news and reports about terrorisms. In my freshman year, my roommate was an Arab American from Palestine with Islam as her religion. As she told me, even though she has been a U.S. citizen for ten years, the misunderstanding and discrimination towards her identity and her religion never stopped. It is just because she comes from an Arab country. It was the first time I opened my mind to learn about Arab countries as well as their culture and religion. Furthermore, after learning about the legalized Islamophobia and the War on Terror and “The Danger of a Single Story” in our ETHN 152 class, I feel very sorry for my previous awareness and judgment and started to learn the Islamic countries and people with more comprehensive and unbiased understanding. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: I cannot find the artist for the caricature. The caricature is from an article in The Freedom Articles, posted by Makia Freeman on September 15, 2017</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Article link: </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/war-on-terror-doctrine-netanyahu/</span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
November 3, 2018 at 11:26 pm #2201QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Our discussion this week focused on the internment of Japanese Americans</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”> during World War II and centered on the key activist Korematsu. The picture that I chose reveals a group of Japanese-American residents that were forcibly evacuated to an internment camp. They were waving the American flag and holding up the victory sign on their train to the camp. I choose this photo because it captures the real expression of the Japanese Americans at the moment of their internment, which reflected their hope and even excitement. After learning about the history of Japanese American incarceration, I feel even more sorrowful when I saw the smile on their faces and the American flag they waved. The reality was too cruel for these innocent Japanese Americans, especially the children: they were looking forward to a better and brighter life (maybe part of their American dreams) but what they would face was actually endless darkness. These Japanese American children would have to grow up and spend their childhood without freedom and equality in the camp. The contrast between their imagination of ideal lives and the reality even demonstrates the unfairness and even ruthlessness of the internment of Japanese Americans. By putting myself on their shoes, I understand better about the importance of Asian American civil movements and the crucial role that Korematsu played in the history of Japanese-American internment. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: Mark Sweeting from Zinn Education Project </span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
October 27, 2018 at 12:44 pm #2008QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Our discussion about James Baldwin’s “Letter to My Nephew” on Friday reminds me of this picture I saw a few years ago. In the photo, an African American boy was surrounded by a group of white policemen. From his expression, we can sense his confusion and fear. The picture is from the article “8 Insightful Suggestions on How to Talk to Black Children About Racism” from Atlanta Black Star. Some of the suggestions in the article such as “be honest about white supremacy” and “teach your children to love themselves and their race” also reflect James Baldwin’s attitude and perspectives from his letter. As for Baldwin, bringing up the topic of racism and demonstrating the fact of racial injustice was the best way to protect his teenage nephew. Even though it sounded merciless for an innocent child, it was an undeniable reality. Baldwin believed that people of color were not protected by laws (such as criminal law) because they did not have criminal power to control or influence any unfair judgments. Similarly, the racial disparities and criminal injustice still exist as of today, such as the unfair arrests and incarceration of people of color. From both Baldwin’s letter and Atlanta Black Star’s post, the correct way to protect black children is to help them gain awareness about the situation from the adults’ experience and teach them to face the reality with mental preparations and positive attitudes. As for them, this is as important as their civil movements for their rights and equality. </span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Source: A Moore, September 15, 2014 from Atlanta Black Star</span>
- This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by QICHEN HUANG.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
October 21, 2018 at 12:22 am #1819QICHEN HUANGParticipant
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The image is a meme from the Instagram of mortallivinggod, an account concerning about African Americans’ rights and justice. It demonstrates the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X with the subtitle “the system behind their deaths did not care that they were of different religions or had differing philosophies on achieving justice and equal rights, but only that they were both black and fighting for the same cause”. As the most prominent civil activists, both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X encountered racial injustice in their society and strived for African Americans’ rights, equality, and freedom. They have always been compared in terms of their social backgrounds, education, religions, beliefs, attitudes for civil rights, and approaches for civil movements. Even the controversial causes and impacts of their assassinations have been frequently discussed as media revealed different theories and speculations about the assassinators and their motives. I choose this image because it summaries the similarities and differences behind their deaths with sharp insight. The meme claims that these two civil activists were assassinated because of their race and advocacy of civil rights and racial justice, which reflects the injustice in American society in the 20th century. I partially agree with the statement because I think the causes would be more complicated than racism and oppositions to their movements. For example, as we discussed in class, Martin Luther King’s anti-war speech “Beyond Vietnam” turned his reputation to a radical and weakened his public support, which indirectly led to his assassination even though his was still “black and fought for civil rights”. Also, the influential leaders could be targeted by assassinators for their influence in movement (one of the reasons that Black Lives Matters movement rejects the charismatic leadership model). However, the murders actually motivated or even radicalized many African-American activists and drove the growth of the civil movement in the 20th century even until nowadays. </span>
Source: Instagram of <span style=”font-weight: 400;”>mortallivinggod, May 29, 2017</span>
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
October 13, 2018 at 4:04 pm #1601QICHEN HUANGParticipant
The image is from the article “America has locked up so many black people it has warped our sense of reality” from The Washington Post. It depicts the hands of a prisoner (an African-American) holding onto jail bars, similar to the cover of Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow. The caricature reveals the mass incarceration of the blacks, which has become one of the most critical civil rights issues today. The racial disparities and criminal injustice behind the incarceration (such as the unfairness in arrests and interrogations), demonstrated by the fact that African Americans are incarcerated at 6 times the rate of whites (NAACP), alters us that the true freedom and equality of people of color is still an unreachable goal in recent decades. The image directly reflects our reading The New Jim Crow and this week’s discussion about current civil injustice. It reveals the reality and reminds us that although racial segregation has been banned since last century, the racial injustice still exists (or even worse in certain cases); African Americans still need to fight for their rights and equality through civil rights movements today.
Source: Rachel Orr, February 2016, from The Washington Post
- This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by QICHEN HUANG.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.
-
-
AuthorPosts