Forest Gump is the inspirational story of a boy, turned man, who accomplishes many signifigant achievements in his life despite being intellectually disabled.
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was legendary. He became an icon in the American Film industry, as well as in Hong Kong. Historically, “blackface” was something white America did to exclude people of color. Less known was that “yellow face” also existed. Representation was given to whites who had poor portayals. Being the only famous Chinese American to thrive during his time, it was easy for the Chinese in America (and internationally)to name him a hero. Although his life was met wth glory and fame, there is little that is said about the racial prejudices he had to encounter. His is a story of an underdog that rose to the top.
Final Check In #2, Group C: Luis, Mindy, and Yahkiney
WHAT:
For our “We Monsters” project, we will focus on the stories of transgendered people, three minimum. Their stories will be shared in the form of a digital picture book with members of the Baruch community through one, if not more, of the schools many social media outlets. The book will feature persons throughout various stages of their transition and some of their thoughts through their road of self-discovery.
WHY:
We feel that the story of a transgender person and the main characters in the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, parallel each other. They are both discriminated and ostracized based on physical appearance. The transformation theme is also evident in both stories and was a theme of the book which we all found to be interesting and important (as seen by our history presentations). The amount of ignorance towards Jin and transgender people is also a topic we which to address. Being that the project is entitled “We Monsters”, we will address the monstrous topic by including tales of heinous crimes committed against transgender people.
Our intention is to illustrate the struggles that the transgendered persons encounters within their family and in their public life . We realize that celebrities have embraced their true-self and have documented their experience. While we applaud their bravery, we intend to focus on the “average” person and document the stories we read in online forums, peer review articles*, and the book “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out”. We also realize that celebrities are scrutinized and become the punchlines of late night television jokes but we feel that they have the financial means to isolate themselves or escape from media attention. The average person may not have the financial means and are heavily discriminated against, bullied and targets of hate crimes. We plan on including reports of crimes committed against people that identify as transgender and how certain states are introducing legislation in an attempt to infringe on their right of self-identification. For example, one of the battlegrounds is known as “bathroom laws”. That is, a percentage of the population that believes that the bathroom one uses should be based on the sex they were born with and not their identification. We will not fully explore the details of the legislation but we feel it is worth noting because the bathrooms at Baruch are gender identity specific. In other words, if you identify as a female but are born with male sex organs, you are free to use the women’s restroom. We hope that after the display of our picture book, the people we showcase will serve as an inspiration. We consider people that have courageously taken the journey towards self-sexual identity as strong, heroic people and we hope that our picture book will reflect our shared sentiments.
Please Note
“Transgender” is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Project Check-in #3 Due Monday
For this next check-in, I need to see visual evidence (i.e. an uploaded photo) of some part of your project that is more or less completed; an outline describing all the additional content you will later add; and a detailed “to-do” list explaining each of the logistical tasks you still need to accomplish in order to complete the project. Please include expected date/time for completion of these remaining tasks.
For example:
If you’re making a book, maybe you show me the book cover with one page completed in it. Or at least with a mock up page. You would then describe in detail how you will go about laying out the rest of the contents of the book and how you might present the book. If you have logistical details to take care of (ie. reserving a space, making and disseminating flyers, etc.) then you should describe the task(s) you still need to complete. You should include a time/date when you plan to complete the task.
If you’re putting up a guerrilla education workshop then you could show me a mock up of one of your supplementary materials. You should also include an outline of the agenda (lesson plan) for that pop-up workshop. You should describe all the logistical tasks that have been completed and all that still need to completed.
THE PURPOSE of this check in is to make sure that your project is feasible, and that you can realistically complete the project by the end of the course. I ask you to submit at least one small part of the project that is done because, even the greatest outline and well thought-out logistical to-do list can’t foresee everything. Often there’s no better way to find out something’s not working than to try it and see it doesn’t work.
Please keep this above described purpose in mind and do your best with this check in. Every group’s check in will be at least slightly different. HOWEVER every group, should be posting a picture of some completed part of the project + an outline and detailed “to do” (+dates) list.
The Karate Kid
One of my favorite underdog stories is The Karate Kid. It’s a classic movie about a boy named Daniel that gets bullied but is taken under the wing of Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel karate using unorthodox methods. In the end, Daniel wins the big karate tournament and defeats his rival despite being injured.
This is my favorite part of the movie. It really shows how he struggled through the tournament. The song is awesome too.
Final Check In 2 Group A: Aaron, Richard, James
Since our video acts like a survey, we want to capture the person’s whole initial response to our questions. This also means we won’t preface with the novel to not tamper with the responses of our sample. We’ll ask them about it after the fact. As for how it would inform people about their responses, the novel brings up that the different cliques are geographically separated, so the average person may stereotype based on geography like those in the book. Yes self monitored videos are specifically used to portray a persona that the author wants to portray.
We’ll make consent form for people to sign on. As for editing, the school has editing programs on the computers. The length of the video will depend on how many people we interview. Our ideal time would be 7- 15 minutes. The format of the video will also depend on how many people we get. Our audience would be people that have read or seen The Outsiders. Our audience would also be anyone interested in social dynamics and stereotyping. To gain people’s interest, we can include a more outrageous response towards the beginning to make them want more.
This relates to liminality because stereotyping is gained from experience and a lot of initial experiences with groups you may consider different happens in this liminal time. We can use the political spectrum, such as liberals vs conservatives, to see the correlation. Greasers are described as emotional like Liberals are radical, while Conservatives tend to have a social image is that of the higher class like the Socs. Then we can relate that to people in the middle like Hinton and see where they lean more towards as far as the cliques in the book.
Close Reading: A Lesson Before Dying
“”I need you,” I told him. “I need you much more than you could ever need me. I need to know what to do with my life. I want to run away, but go where and do what? I’m needed here and I know it, but I fell that all i’m doing here is choking myself. I need someone to tell me what to do. I need you to tell me, to show me. I’m not here, I can just give something small. That’s all I have to offer. It is the only way that we can chip away at that much. You— you can be bigger than anyone you have ever met.” (193)
This passage is one of the most important points of the book. Up until now Grant has been trying to teach Jefferson how to “be a man” so he can walk to his death with his head held high. However, he has not been able to get through to Jefferson. Jefferson still acts like he is the hog that the white folk called him. In this passage we see a shifting of roles and responsibility. This is the point where Jefferson finally starts to understand the implication of what becoming a man in these circumstances would be. Grant needs him, his godmother needs him, and his community needs him. His defiance in the face of the white folk could break the endless cycle of abusive their people have faced for generations. Grant understands this, and he also see’s that despite all his efforts to become educated and respectable he is only making small strides for his people. Mr. Pichot, the men at the prison, and a few other white folk in the novel call Grant professor, but it is evident in the language that they don’t actually convey any respect for him. He is aware of this and it’s what makes Jefferson’s transformation all the more necessary. If he can face his death like a man, and defy the white folks exceptions it will be a much more tangible blow than what Grant has been able to accomplish. This is the passage that Grant conveys his feelings about this too Jefferson. We are left uncertain as to whether or not Jefferson has understood what Grant means “I cry, not from reaching any conclusion by reasoning, but because lowly as I am, I am still part of the whole. Is that what he was thinking as he looked at me crying?”. (Side note, we of course do find out by the end of the novel Jefferson understood and committed himself to that self sacrificing role, I say self sacrificing because although he was going to die either way he had a chose in what manner he went out, it would of been easy to die as a hog, it was hard to die like a man and defy the white man’s expectations.)
A Lesson Before Dying Close Reading.
The book starts off with Jefferson speaking. Jefferson stated “I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be. Still, I was there. I was there as much as anyone else was there.” (Gaines, 3). Jefferson was a young African American man who had no rights and his life was taken from him. Although he wasn’t killed during the robbery at the liquor store, the law and society stripped him from the world. Jefferson was sitting in jail awaiting for the day he would be placed in an electric chair for a crime he did not commit. It made no sense for Jefferson to try to “fight” for his justice because it would be pointless. No matter how much he would say or do, he would still be blamed for the crime. There were other people at the crime scene who were killed, except for Jefferson. Everyone assumed and made it clear that he was in the wrong, when he wasn’t even given any time to speak up for himself. Not only as a man but also being a human Jefferson had no real placement in society because of the color of his skin. He could not change who he was, he could not alter his skin color, or his race. All he had left was time left to adapt to his current predicament.
Jefferson was already limited and held back from being a normal human outside of jail. But now that he was physically confined in jail, it was slowly destroying his mentality. It gave him time to continuously think about his day coming. How many days he had left before he’d be gone forever. This time in Jefferson’s life caused the people that loved him the most to support him and be by his side. But in Jefferson’s eyes it didn’t mean much because he would soon be killed. Should Jefferson have felt some type of love and specialty since everybody came to him and everything was being brought to him? It seemed like he was receiving attention and the right love from people at the wrong time.
All his life Jefferson wanted things that he was never able to have. Now that he was in jail, the fact that everyone amongst him is asking him what he wants, only made him feel worst. Jefferson expressed “The kind of day I want?” he said. “The kind of day I want? I never got nothing I wanted in my whole life. Now I’m go’n get a whole day?” (Gaines, 170). Now that his last days are coming up and he has nothing to live for people are asking him what he wants. He gets to choose the weather, he gets to have a whole day focused on him, is he supposed to be happy about this?
Grants task was to make Jefferson into a man before he was placed in the chair. It was up to Grant to break the cycle of feeling worthless and useless as a black man in society. There was no real set way of how to turn Jefferson into a man. But I believe it was more of allowing him to leave this world feeling like somebody. Not leaving this world feeling like a hog and whatever else society compared him to. Although the circumstances were no way near good, Jefferson still had time to feel and tell himself that he was somebody, no matter how much society down played him.
Manhood is supposed to be a time in life that is appreciated and valued. It gives a man a chance to reveal his intelligence, strength, and worth to the world. One group of men that never get to fully experience being a man are African American men. Being a black man in society is a reason of always having it harder, not being able to move forward, and having that purpose of living taken away from them.
LBD Close Reading
“Since emancipation, almost a hundred years ago , they would do any kind of work they could find to keep from working side by side in the field with the niggers…Even took that kind of work from the white boys, because they would do wit so much cheaper than the white boys would,Anything not to work alongside the niggers”(198)
Sometimes within your own race you are faced with racism , you wouldn’t expect that form of monstrosity to someone of your same background. Simply because one is a few shades lighter doesn’t define you to be greater than anybody. Grant repeat that the multattos in his town were willing to do anything to keep from working with “niggers” , their brothers , black men , same background , and in the eyes of the white man a nigger. The mulattos are willing to go as far to charge less for their labor , whites discredits them and their work , just to not work with “niggers”. One is willing to go as far , as limit the amount of pay they should receive for ones labor all to avoid someone like themselves but a few shades lighter. Racism within its own race is a barbaric , sickening and Gaines takes us to this place , so it is known what is going on within the community.
Group D Final Check In
Our focus for our group project is to closely pinpoint teaching (hence the title) and the importance of community. Not only is Jefferson being taught how to become a man but Grant is being taught how to be real with himself. As African American men both characters were limited to learning and being educated. Luckily Grant was educated but he was still a black man.
“It takes a village to raise a child” meaning the participation from everyone in a community would help and nurture a person. Our project would be to create a scrapbook. The scrapbook will consists of the characters in the book but who we imagine them to be. For example, each character in the scrapbook would be a celebrity, actor, or actress that we feel best symbolizes the character based off of how they operate in the book. In addition, the scrapbook will consists of different recipes that were mentioned in the book and also happened to be meaningful to Jefferson.
We are trying to find a classroom or area for this but we will host an event “The Last Supper of the Spring Semester”. At this event we will be serving all of the food that is mentioned in our scrapbook. We will not only be feeding the community the food but feeding them the lessons we take away from the book, the idea of “becoming a man”, the idea of captivity/imprisonment, and we also wish to gain feedback and speak about the book and modern day struggles as an African American man. Have times changed? What are the differences and similarities now? Some of the questions we hope can strike a conversation.