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.