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The film took a turn for the worse during the closing, escalating into a situation that could’ve been avoided entirely. There were several occasions within the altercation between Sal and Radio Raheem where the both of the them could’ve “done the right thing” and avoided the grim ending. For one, Sal obviously did not have to wreck the radio, he could’ve just listened to Buggin’ Out and put at least 1 “brother” on the wall. Sal’s refusal makes me want to side with Spike Lee in deciding that Sal is indeed racist despite it not being as obvious and explicit as his son. While Mookie’s actions were not called for, I can’t really blame him for it. In this situation I don’t really think the title applies because although Mookie should not have destroyed the window which led to the ransacking of the pizzeria, I can’t help but put myself in his shoes. He lost a friend and in the moment was clearly distraught by that more than the way the community as reacting to Sal.

In the first half of the film, there are already very strong and important themes. There is a struggle between nonviolence and violence (or as Radio Raheem would put it, Love and Hate). We see this when Pino has an exchange with Smiley and the people across the street are obviously angered by Pino’s behavior. Pino represents the hate which he clearly expresses while his father represents love and nonviolence by trying to be the mediator and keep the peace.  It’s also visible how all the different cultures clash in the community. The Black and Latinos being the “natives” in the community and the poorest, while the Italian and Koreans own the two businesses and seem to be better off economically.  Something else I noticed and thought was interesting was how Mookie handles his job. Despite being one of the only people who have a job, he seems to take it lightly. His work ethic is clearly lacking as he makes “90-minute deliveries” and even goes home to shower while still on the clock. I think that type of mentality can be detrimental because sooner or later it will catch up to you. Maybe it’s this mentality that keeps us locked in our situations.

There are several key similarities between Baldwin’s Letter to his nephew and Coates letter to his son. To mention the obvious, they both write to the children when they are 15 years old. A 15 year may not exactly understand the contents disclosed in the letter as they are quite heavy. Both letters describe the disadvantages and atrocities that the future generation will have to face simply because of the color of their skin. In Baldwin’s letter, he makes a conscious choice to call the oppressors “innocent”. The effect this diction has is powerful because it shows that he’s fighting the system in a nonviolent way. He’s in effect saying, kill them with love, and this is the concept he is trying to instill in his nephew through the letter. “You know and I know that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too early”, he is accusing his country of being at fault for the climate his son will have to grow up in. But the scariest thing about reading both of these essays is that, although they were written half a century apart, society has made little progress in addressing the issues brought up.

In the article “Between the World and Me” written by Coates, the author uses a lot of imagery to convey his message. For example, Coates states “the Dream rests on our backs, the bedding made from our bodies”. What this signifies is that the American Dream he refers to was built on the foundation of Black History. This history includes all the terrors of Slavery. Slaves quite literally built this nation, and it is often this very idea that is overlooked, especially in today’s social climate. This is explained more directly when the author says “America’s progress was built on looting and violence”. There’s a hypocritical nature to the very foundation of our country, and it’s one that a portion of society is choosing to ignore.

Finding out the music industry was flawed and inconsiderate is not a surprise to me. I always knew the industry was one of the biggest scams but it’s not always so apparent to the artists and the rest of society. Like many other aspects of our lives, the industry fell prey to the effects of capitalism. At the end of the day, the goal of labels is not to do anything other than rake in as much money as possible. Their focus then is not on the artist but on the green. Artists then fall victim to the system and end up in a cycle they can’t get out of. The blame, however, doesn’t just lie with the record companies, it lies in everyone taking part in the deal. Some artists are moved by money and as soon as they see “large” (large to the artist, but it remains a very small amount of the money generated for the companies) advances of money they automatically think “they made it in life”. In essence, they’re blinded by the money upfront and become oblivious when the labels end up holding money or acting in ways against the artists. We’re all just moved by money, the music industry is no different from any other industry.

I enjoyed this article very much because it’s related to the IT world which is where I’ll hopefully land.  The relatively rapid increase in computer usage and involvement, many industries have had to quickly adapt to the changing world. It is extremely hard for a business to thrive in today’s economy without somehow incorporating computers whether it be having a website, or taking and processing credit card payments, etc. The music industry happened to be one of the quickest industries to be hit by the changing times. As computers became mainstream, people developed ways to try and bypass the expensive tag that music had in the 90s. There is no coincidence that Napster’s main demographic was college students. Students who often don’t have spare money to be spending on a luxury that is music, Napster appeals to these individuals the most and it has since then caused a ripple in the industry. It’s caused us to move away from CDs and physical means of listening to our music in favour of ways more accessible and efficient.

I especially liked this video about unboxing videos and why we watch them because it reveals a deeper reasoning behind our behavior. Growing up in a capitalist society we tend to feel the effects of materialism. We’re fortunate enough to have the luxury to be able to have enough money that we can spend some of it on things we might not need, but WANT. My best example is the Supreme Brick. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy Supreme from time to time, but they sold an actual brick that sported the Supreme logo on it and it sold out in minutes and is now worth more than 5x it’s original price. We end up buying things not based on their functionality but on what society deems its worth. The simple fact that the rest of society also wants that item influences us and may push us to also want that item. To me, it seems like a sort of addiction, we always find ourselves scratching that “itch” mentioned in the video. It’s something we all subconsciously do and I’m no exception.

“Here, in short, are people becoming famous for doing nothing much at all, but doing it where everyone can see them.” This quote, taken from the article “Reality TV: a dearth of talent and the death of morality” unfortunately describes the society we live in. When we come home and turn on our TVs we often give our attention to people who quite frankly don’t deserve it. It’s also shocking to see that this article, which was written in 2001, is still relevant today. The article brings up the idea of Reality TV as an inverted ethical universe, which lead me to an interesting question on society, how different would popular culture be if TV portrayed real meaningful values like “modesty, decency, intelligence, humor, selflessness”.  If we looked to Reality TV and saw these values in the “contestants” would these same values then be more prevalent in our every day lives across the people we meet? I guess this also shows the effect that Reality TV as a form of pop culture has on society’s values.

Out of the readings assigned so far, “Strategies for Active Reading” is one of my favorites. I enjoy these readings because it’s easy to relate to and pick up on useful information. Whenever I’m faced with having to read a long text I get nervous because I’m not good at staying focused on reading for an extended period of time. The article brought up a good point in breaking the text up into “chunks”. I benefit a lot from compartmentalizing things and reading is one field where I can apply this strategy. The article also highlights that we as readers and students must acknowledge how we learn and which strategies work best for us. In high school, I was always given printouts which I noticed don’t work as well for me as being able to download readings as pdf’s and reading them on my iPad. Being able to access readings digitally lets me annotate the readings right there on the tablet and have a neat method of organization which to me is also extremely important. The last point I relate to is about the speed at which we read. I noticed I tend to read quickly to finish my homework quicker, however as soon as I came across this point I read a little slower and retained a lot more information. These are tips I will try my best to carry out as a reader and be conscious of as a person.

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