Author: Dion

What I plan on my first paper being about.

When I was in High School, during my Senior Year, my English teacher introduced to the play “Angels in America”, by Tony Kushner. He told the class that he loves to teach this book every year because of his brother, who died of Aids. This story takes place in the late 1980s, where people believed that the cause of AIDS was homosexuality and God punishing those individuals. Of course we would later find out that this wasn’t true. The point is, homosexuality was highly looked down upon in society to the point where people would go through great lengths to hide this from their neighborhood or even just anyone. Roy Cohn is a character inspired from the actual Roy Cohn as they are political figures in both the story and in real life. The twist however, in the story Roy Cohn is a homosexual who is unwilling to accept that he is homosexual. One of the most moving scenes for me personally in Angels in America is the interaction between Cohn and his nurse. In the scene, the nurse informs to Cohn that he has AIDS, and because of societies understanding of the cause of AIDS, the readers and the Nurse believe that Roy Cohn is homosexual. Roy Cohn admits that he fucks other men but refuses to label himself as a homosexual. He is not just refusing to accept his sexual identity, but this scene establishes that Cohn made the decision to solidify his fake status towards the public so that he could be treated in the best way that he could. He chose his status over his identity, and the real question is, is this moral or right?

Many people thought that we couldn’t have an African American President, how likely are we able to have a President who is homosexual, or even transgender? A large group of people believe as though people who are transgender are delusional or have mental illness. If you don’t believe me, listen to what Ben Shapiro has said regarding people who are transgender.

I wanted the topic of my essay to fall in either categories of Gender of Homeland and Identity. I think that these topics are both beautiful because we as a society right now are trying to define them for what they are. We live in a society of Hierarchies when it comes to race, gender, culture, or just anything else with differences. My brother is currently trying to figure out his sexuality and after having a great conversation with him, we came to an agreement where we should treat sexuality as a spectrum where there is a ton of variety, but remains equal and leveled at the same time. I would be lying to you if I said I was 100% straight because I don’t think anyone is. Sure putting the label, Heterosexual Male is simple, but we are all different from one to another, how can say certain people are in this group and other people are in another group. I don’t think it serves justice to the people, personally.

Anyway, I’m still tying to find an essay that could help find a topic of interested. I’m sorry this is taking me a while to do, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out as some point as my grade does depend on it. I have an idea of what I want to argue about, and I have an idea of the audience I want to speak to. I want to argue that gender and sexual orientation isn’t as simple as a 2 options. I want to talk about how being gay lesbian affects the way people treat you in society. I want to talk about limited opportunities the LGBTQ community have because they are just being themselves. I want my audience to be people who are religious, who think anyone who is not straight has a mental illness. Those who are willing to listen to the other perspective at least. I want my audience to be the older generation because not even my Grandparents see a world where sexuality other than straight is not okay. I also want to raise the question, to these people, why should it matter to you?

People shouldn’t feel bad for people who have different sexual orientations because they are marginalized, they should just accept them with open arms. People shouldn’t feel bad for others just because they are different. It’s not a disease. Anyway, I’m going to talk to you tomorrow about what essay I should use in my paper. See you in Class!

Response to “Mug shot”, For You, and the Ted talk “Can art Amend History”

I understand that there is inequality in this world and I am constantly being reminded of it more than I should. Out of 4 of these past reading/writing assignments, 3 of them talk about how African Americans are marginalized in the news, art, and of course history. In addition, my communications professor dedicates 30 minutes why he doesn’t like President Trump and why he is a “racist prick”. Funny enough, these is not the only instances where I am reminded that the world is unfair towards race and gender.

I am currently a volunteer at Clearview Park Golf course so that I can have full access to the course’s resources. What 19 year old volunteers at a golf course? Not too many. The other volunteers that I work with happen to be older gentlemen that want to play golf on a consistent basis, but for a cheaper price. Anyway, while our generation is being educated on how racist Americans are, who is telling my co workers? Rather than being racist towards African Americans, they are racist towards Koreans, as that happens to be majority racial group of Customers. I hear things such as, “Koreans are cheap”, “they act like they don’t speak English and act like we are stupid”. Just as I am being educated on why I shouldn’t be racist, I’m constantly being surrounded by racism. I have no intention of talking about how racist my family is.

When I attended the University at Albany, I was exposed to diversity when I was both a Freshman, and even when I was a Resident Assistant. Just to give you an idea of what A Resident Assistant does, their job is to create an inclusive welcoming environment for their residents and to promote diversity through creating events. I understand how important diversity is within a community because so many cultures can provide different ways of thinking, living, and just looking at the world.

Here is my problem, the problem has already been identified, but people think that bringing awareness to a problem is the solution. While it may be an effective one, it shouldn’t be the main solution.

Kaphar’s message in his Ted Talk was beautiful in the sense that Art History misses the context of African Americans that are a part of the painting, because that is just as important as everything else in the painting . He suggests that instead of erasing history certain parts of history because they were dark, we should unfold it so we can truly see the full picture. His solution to this problem was to present this idea to as many people as he could. One of Eula Bliss’ arguments in “Is this Kansas was that people don’t realize that they are more racist than they like to believe. Coates’s argument was the “X-Men First Class” was an inaccurate representation of the African Americans heroes who fought for their rights in the 1960s. THEY ALL ADDRESS GREAT PROBLEMS, BUT CREATING AWARENESS CLEARLY ISN’T ENOUGH TO SOLVE THESE ISSUES.

I think the “Mug Shot”, painting is a very symbolic painting in a variety of ways. Even when you think of the words, Mug Shot, you associate it will prison, jail, or any other correctional facility. To a good portion of people, when one see a black man in a mug shot, most people would associate that person as a “bad man”. I would recommend looking up Jeremy Meeks Mugshot. Rather than focusing on the fact that he was a convict, a former member of the crips, they focused on his beauty instead. Surprise, Surprise, he does not have dark skin. When I look at this painting, he African American boy looks happy, and it looks as though his eyes are attentive and even welcoming. Maybe this painting was suppose to represent that it is a societal standard for African Americans to go to jail, because the man looks at peace. Maybe this photo and the person in it is enough for an individual to stay, “oh he looks bad, I wouldn’t trust him”. And then I think of things like how a White male convict is more likely to get a job than a black male who was never a convict.

Look I personally don’t understand why the majority of our texts were about the oppression of only African Americans. I know nothing about the oppression of the elderly, I know nothing about the oppression of different sexualities other than heterosexual.

After reading these two texts, I immediately thought of “Is this Kansas”, by Eula Bliss, because of the idea behind “Villains or Victims”. In “Is this Kansas”, she conveys this idea where African Americans are seen in either of these ways, instead of in between. I couldn’t agree with this idea anymore because I think of phrases such as white privilege, black lives matters, and then I think of the stories of gang related violence. Sure there are a whole variety of African American heroes I think of such as Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, and personally for me, Tiger Woods. However, more often than not you will see more day to day instances where that Victims or Villains apply in the media and other news sources. These two articles amplified that argument and allowed myself as the reader to look at another perspective of why African Americans are continuously being marginalized.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “You left Out the Part About”, to expose how the heroes/mutants in the movie “X-Men, First Class”, poorly resemble African Americans fighting for their rights in the 1960s. Coates wonders, “How do I speak of the Sentinels whose eyes melt history, until the world forgets that in 1962, the quintessential mutants of America were black?” (paragraph 10, Coates). These are questions he is asking himself because he refuses to let his child to be misguided. His son is only 10 years old, which is a pretty impressionable age, and a perfect time to influence them.

Coates questions why the heroes, the mutants, are white. Up until recently with movies such as black panther, typically a superhero would be white. As a child I never really paid attention to that. When Coates says that African Americans are the heroes/mutants of the 1960s, he conveys the idea that heroism performed by this group of people never gets the recognition that it deserves. A marginalized group will continue to be marginalized if reporters, the media, and any other news source continues to not tell the full story. There is selective journalism in the world and audience and societal standards are erasing certain aspects of history and Coates is witnessing it through his child. How in the world is that fair. As I make this argument, The “victims and Villains” is being reminded in my mind. When you ask questions like, why are not African Americans seen as heroes, why are they being marginalized in our society, why why why….

Carmen-Maria-Machado further expands this idea in her passage, Dream House as Prologue. What I love about Coates in his introduces and opens the conversations amongst his readers. At the same time, anyone can appreciate a well structured argument such as Machado. The quote that got my attention when she verifies the idea of selective journalism. She establishes this by saying, “Sometimes the proof is never committed to the archive-it is not considered important enough to record, or if it is, not important enough to preserve” ( Paragraph 3, Machado). The quote refers to the idea that important information is constantly being taken away from the public, and without this knowledge, how are we suppose to progress the way we think? How will we ever change our expectations of how we see groups of people? Machado really brings a lot of good questions, yet it seems as though bringing awareness to the reader is her solution. Do you think that is enough to change how a society thinks. A lot of people like to focus there energy on identifying and discovering problems around the world, but how much time do we ever spend on finding the solutions?

I was taught this idea through taking an English class, in New York, Manhattan. I’m sure there are other places around the world that teach this, but how many actually do this? I’ll tell you what though, making people aware of this conflict through college is a start to this solution. Creating diversity in movies is a solution. Implementing and welcoming diversity in everything we do is a stretch solution. But how can one just drastically change people’s morals. I don’t know if there is one answer to this question, but I wish it was that simple.

Anyway, while I think America has become less racist, think people have created complicated and creative ways to continue the segregation between races. Ways in which we as people can’t even realize, hell I didn’t even realize it when I was watching the X Men first class trailer in class. These articles made me question the way I look at Television for sure and I’m glad it did.

 

Response to Titanic force of a young women in love.

 

When I think of romantic movies, I think of two people fall in love with each other, there is some type of conflict, but their love conquers that conflict. These movies differentiate from each other because the conflicts may very, or maybe how the two people fell in love, but we can all agree that these movies are not real. A lot of people understand that these movies are not realistic, while others are hopeless romantics and believe that this stuff actually happens.

One of the romantic films that I have watched was “The Notebook”. A part of me loved it, in terms how two people are so deeply in love with each other no matter what the odds were. HOWEVER, there are a lot of instances that were beyond unrealistic. You don’t even need to know the story to know how stupid this is. Just for clarity, the two lovers are Noah and Allie. Get this, the way Noah asks Allie is by threatening to committing suicide or physical harm. Here’s a little bit of context though, Noah sees Allie on a Ferris Wheel and instead of grabbing a seat like a normal human being, he grabs on to a bar and hangs there. Then Noah asks her out and if she says no, he will continue to hang on the bar until he not able to anymore. She eventually says yes because she doesn’t want to be responsible for a death. Then 30 minutes later, they fall in love. I have one good question to ask. WHAT WOMAN IS ATTRACTED TO A MAN WHO IS DESPERATE. Noah is as desperate as you can be for a woman that he never even met. The power of love I guess right.

Anyway, while Lorrie Moore talks more about women in her essay, I still think it was worth mentioning this example because all of romantic movies will never define what true love is. One phrase I would like to expand on is when she uses the phrase, “middle-aged pornography”, which I believe it is very similar to what romantic movies provide. Pornography is designed to stimulate ourselves without the viewer to  even thinking, but at the same time, it shows us a misrepresentation of what sex is actually like. Even as something as orgasms. Not all women scream to the top of their lungs for 5 minutes when they orgasm, sorry to break the news.

Going back to the topic of interest, Romantic Movies are a misrepresentation of not only love, but what woman are willing to do when they are in love. These movies really convey the idea that love will make you crazy, and to some degree, I agree with this. However, look at Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is willing to give up her family name and everything that came with it for Romeo. She took a potion that would give the impression of death for a certain amount of hours, and didn’t really think about what could’ve went wrong with it. As we know, poor communication lead to the demise of both of these lovers. I have never come across people who have been willing to kill themselves if the other is not alive.

What I personally don’t understand is why these movies continue to exist. Lorrie Moore believes as though there is a purpose to movies such as these but I don’t agree with it. Just like Pornography, Romantic Movies are not healthy our expectations.

Could you learn a thing or two from these movies, sure, but don’t model your life after them. If you were to model a movie in your life, at least use the movie “A Bronx Tale”. This movie is amazing in the sense that it teaches you how to deal with a realistic conflict between two people who LIKE each other. In this movie, Calogero, a white man falls for his classmate, Jane, an African American woman. This movie took place in a time where interracial couples were not as accepted as they are now. One very memorable scene is the that Sonny, a father figure of Calogero tells him how to differentiate a woman that is special and is not. In the film he says, “If she doesn’t reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in, that means she’s a selfish broad, and all you’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg,”. Sonny is referring to a car when you open a door for a woman in your car, she opens it up for you as well. Cars were built differently back then and it used to be very inconvenient to lock and unlock car doors. Anyway I would go see that scene, it was very moving for me.

Long story short, just make romantic movies more relatable rather than over exaggerated non sense.

Introduction

My name is Dionysios Joseph Zervos, but feel free to call me by my nickname, Dion. This is my first semester at Baruch, and the previous school that I attended was the University at Albany. The main reason I transferred schools was because the sport of golf. I have never fell in love with a a sport like this. In order to meet the expectations I had for myself as a golfer, I needed to move back to my home town, where all the resources I need are. I plan on being a pro golfer, but I still value my education. I am a currently a real estate major and I enjoy reading because new ideas help create progression, and my opinion, progress equals happiness.