Author: IVAN SANCHEZ

“This is when we were told to move on. When Bryant retired from basketball, it was seen as “not the time” to talk about the rape case because it was a moment of celebration. It would never actually become the right time, which is a lesson you will learn repeatedly when trying to talk about sexual violence”.

This quote stood out to me because another instance of this that I immediately thought of was the Cristiano Ronaldo case, which was actually mentioned as I continued reading this article. It really is a tricky scenario when rape accusations come to sports stars, or celebrities in general, because they have so much at stake; their credibility, their revenue streams, and personal life, and will try to do anything to  resolve the issue without making as much noise as possible. And because of the amount of wealth that they have amassed, these celebrities can afford to settle these accusations in court and eventually nothing ever comes out of it again. In regards to “the time” to talk about the issue, I don’t think that can ever be possible because these celebrities will always have so many entities and groups behind them that will try and silence the matter. Of course, people won’t forget and can bring it up whenever they please, but a whole lot of other people will point out that a certain star wasn’t proved guilty and eventually settled in court with the accuser. Thats another big problem when it comes to situations like these, the word accuser. It’s really hard to be given credibility when you’re alone and are faced with plenty of backlash in regards to the validity of your case. And the fact that such matters have no concrete evidence and is only first hand experience, it just really complicates matters.

Lastly in regards to Kobe’s situation, he will always be considered as one the best to ever do it, but there is a blemish in his career that one can’t simply ignore. Of course, not everyone is perfect and he has changed as seen through his personal life and outside works that he has done off the court. However, the “time” to bring it up is not now because he has lived his life and everyone was or still is grieving or celebrating his life. However, cases like these should be analyzed and talked about when other celebrities or sports stars face similar issues so that justice can truly be served properly.

I believe Coates does make his case because Coates provides sufficient evidence to prove that African Americans need some sort of reparation for the wrongdoings that were done to them in the past, even if it was “150 years ago”, like Republican Senator and House Majority Leader Mitch Mcconell says it only amounts to. In regards to the philosophical question, “Can something be not your fault, but still your responsibility?”, I believe this hold true, but especially to people that are in power and are in charge of fixing issues like these. in the case of Mitch Mcconell, I believe he is doing something morally wrong here because he is in a position to amend or soothe tensions about this tricky event from the past, but he is instead fueling the fire and escalating tensions among the public who feel deeply about this issue, and even goes as far to say he is not responsible for these acts. It’s obvious that he himself is not responsible for the atrocities that took place back then, but he is responsible for acknowledging his power to offer reparations and is responsible for the consequences of his comments that will deeply impact the rest of society for years to come.

Coates makes his case of African Americans always being mistreated unfairly either through law or society by showcasing a timeline of events that especially hindered African American growth and integration into society.

Coates goes as far back to slavery to showcase the unfair start that African Americans had in American society. Coates summed up their situation the best when he said, “Whereas indentured servants were still legal subjects of the English crown and thus entitled to certain protections, African slaves entered the colonies as aliens. Exempted from the protections of the crown, they became early America’s indispensable working class—fit for maximum exploitation, capable of only minimal resistance”. African Americans were thus not given any rights, discriminated against within laws, and were stripped away from basic human necessities/fundamentals, one important one being family ties. African Americans were often separated from their wives and children, thus “the parting of black families was a kind of murder”, due to the lack of telecommunications at the time, especially for African Americans back then.

Coates then takes us to a time when slavery was abolished, but discrimination towards African Americans persisted. This came in the form of African Americans being denied the right to secure any loans from banks and denied the right to own a house. Certain deals and organizations such as “The New Deal” and “The G.I. Bill”, were shaped in a way that prevented African Americans getting the same benefits as white Americans. These dealings were influenced by earlier American sentiment and public guidelines/treatment that painted African Americans as not worthy of being treated the same as White Americans. An example of this being, “The American real-estate industry believed segregation to be a moral principle. As late as 1950, the National Association of Real Estate Boards’ code of ethics warned that “a Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood … any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values””.

The long, lasting effects of these acts can be seen through certain neighborhoods such as when, “By the 1940s, Chicago led the nation in the use of these restrictive covenants, and about half of all residential neighborhoods in the city were effectively off-limits to blacks”. Chicago was able to build “second ghettos” in black neighborhoods and thus enforced even more segregation within the city due to the lack of appeal and quality in them.

Coates thus shows that African Americans were denied equal treatment all throughout American history, thus connotes to the fact that African Americans should be reparated for the wrong doings that have been done to them over the course of American history.

Question: “Do artists even need record labels to become successful anymore?”

I chose the topic of evolution in the music industry because I like listening to music so I thought this topic would be interesting to do research on since it is relevant in my life. I came up with this specific question because it is interesting to see, especially in today’s world, how many artists have blown up out of nowhere without any major help or established entity backing them up. Also, many artists now are doing well without any record label power and there are even artists that do have record label back up and they aren’t doing well commercially. I would provide examples of artists who blew up without any record label help, artists who had no industry help at first but signed deals afterwards and skyrocketed into fame. Also artists that do have record labels but aren’t doing well commercially, and artists that are doing well still and are successful still without record label help to this day. I would gather stats, articles, and websites for my information.

Doubts: Some doubts that I have about my topic/question is if its too broad or too narrow. When I saw the slides that were presented in class, I tried to come up with a question that didn’t fall into those categories. Another doubt that I had is what type of information I’m going to get and the credibility of those sources. I threw some potential information I might get, but I don’t know if thats enough or up to par with what a research question demands. Another doubt is what will I argue. I don’t know if I missed this, and if I did my bad, but will I have to argue for anything? I know we have to do research and come up with an answer to our question, but like can we include pro’s and con’s of each side, then come up with a personal answer? Or does it have to be a factual answer? I’d say thats my biggest doubt/concern. But other than that, I’m actually excited about researching this question/topic.

“we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it”.

What Alexander means by this is that the way we treat certain minority groups, most notably African Americans, in today’s world is more or less the same way we treated them back then when racism and racist tendencies were rampant and un-regulated.

Alexander backs this argument up by bringing up the story of Jarvious Cotton, who can be representative of countless African Americans living in the US. Cotton’s lineage has been denied the right to vote because of racist obstacles. Whether it be due to slavery or the KKK, they were denied the right to vote. Nothing has changed for Cotton. He too is denied the right to vote because he is labeled as a felon and is on parole. Now one might think, “why is this racist?”. Well, many African Americans are likely to end up in prison at some point in their life and Alexander supports this claim by stating, “The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature. No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.6 Similar rates of incarceration can be found in black communities across America.”. As you can see, African Americans are more likely than any other race group in the US to end up in prison. This is down to many reasons, however Alexander points out that The War On Drugs that was started by then President Ronald Reagan fueled this notion of crack/cocaine impacting and being carried out by inner city African American neighborhoods. Reagan went as far as to “[hire] staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine in 1985 as part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support for the war”. This further established racial stereotypes about African Americans for the public and as a result, “In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase”.

These are all examples of the racial caste system in the US being merely redesigned and still existing because although there aren’t any hate groups running rampant across the US and threatening African American lives, or any extreme cases similar to that matter, American society has been restructured to give most African Americans a disadvantage in life, thus leaving them with the same type of treatment experienced before when racism “was still a problem”.

Allen Almachar also watched Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, and we held similar viewpoints about this movie. He gave the movie a B+ on rotten tomatoes and found the message of the movie to be one that I also found. He saw that the message of the movie was, ” that we can accomplish amazing things if we set our minds to it. He also adds that the plot and story of the movie is straightforward and gets to the point quick, and that that is a good thing. He also adds that the fact that the main character of the movie is someone who millions of people watching the movie can relate to it. Adding, “Miles is like any normal kid: trying to stay focused on his school work, awkward socially (particularly with the opposite sex), and just trying to get by”. He also mentions that the movie is filled with vibrant and colorful comicbook-like animation that gives the movie even more life. I would like to add that this type of animation and choice of color adds to the message of the story. It uses creative imagery and emphasizes the viewpoint of being what you want to be in life and following your aspirations because it can lead to great things. I would have to disagree with his notion that the movie is too fast paced. I feel like this aspect helps with the energy of the movie and helps add a more feel-good, creativity inspiring experience.

“Since the mid-1960’s, Asian Americans have been widely valorized relative to Blacks via the model minority myth. Journalists, politicians, and scholars alike have constructed Asian Americans as a model minority whose cultural values of diligence, family solidarity, respect for education, and self-sufficiency have propelled it to notable success”. (Page 118).

This quote stood out to me because although I am not Asian American myself, I had the opportunity to do some research about Chinese Culture for my Communications class and there are aspects in there that relate to this quote. Chinese culture does hold true to the fact that one should do well in school in order to get a high paying job that will see someone be financially stable or wealthy in the future. However, the prejudice and belittlement that spews out of this notion that has been held since the mid-1960’s is unfair and quite frankly ignorant. Although yes I have seen instances of Asian American students doing particularly well and usually being the highest scoring students in a class, this cannot undermine the efforts and value of other minorities that put in just as much effort, particularly “Blacks” as mentioned in the quote, just because of their race. There are a variety of other viable factors that determine ones success. I like that this model minority structure is titled a “myth” because this model sets the stage for minority races to bicker with each other and essentially be put against each other. The amount of work one puts in determines their success, not their race.

• 0:03- The Music Video starts off with a message reading, “finneas is my brother and my best friend. no matter the circumstance, we always have and always will be there for each other”, on a green background.
• 0:12- The video cuts to a moving car which appears to be driving on an elevated highway. In the background you can see it is night time and there appears to be a city landscape with lit skyscrapers , perhaps taking place New York or another city. It is hard to tell because the background is out of focus.
• 0:26- The two people in the car appear to be Billie in the drivers seat and her brother Finneas passenger side. It is hard to tell because the windows appear to be tinted and this combined with the night scenery and gives it more ambiguity.
• 0:41- We finally see Billie’s face and she appears to be driving with her brother Finneas passenger side. Billie has this almost tired/serious look on her face as well as her brother.
• 0:49- Billie drives into a tunnel which gets rid of the city landscape scenery for the time being.
• 0:53- Billie drives out of the tunnel and there appears to be a completely new scenery in the background. Instead of a city landscape, there is a huge ocean with a couple of small mountains in the background. If you take a closer look, the golden state bridge is also in the background as well, but that is also hard to distinguish as it is still night time and the background is still out of focus.
• 0:56- Billie once again drives into another tunnel and this also gets rid of the landscape scenery for the time being.
• 0:59- We once again see Billie’s face, but she appears to look even more tired and more sad with her brother maintaining that same serious look.
• 1:09- We start to see the exit of the tunnel and there appears to be a new another new scenery. This time it appears to be a California dessert. You can tell because of the cactuses and dry, arid flora.
• 1:14- The background still takes place in the dry, California dessert but this time we see a sunset overlooking the mountain scape and highway.
• 1:24- We can now see the car has driven onto the sand of a beach
• 1:26- Finneas looks out the window and looks concerned almost
• 1:28- Billie just keeps looking straight ahead as she continues to drive
• 1:38- They both look straight ahead as the car continues to drive straightforward
• 1:53- We see Billies POV in the drivers seat and it is just pure ocean.
• 1:57- The car appears to be heading to the ocean
• 2:01- Billies foot is seen stomping on the accelerator pedal of the car
• 2:09- The car appears to be sinking slowly into the ocean
• 2:12- We see from the inside that the water level arises from the outside, slowly covering up the window view.
• 2:16- The car is now fully submerged underwater
• 2:24- We see the car is getting further and further away from the surface
• 2:28- It is completely dark in the ocean, with only the bright headlights of the car illuminating the pitch blackness.
• 2:34- Billie touches the window but with a calm demeanor
• 2:40- They are both just sitting there calmly, with surprisingly no water entering the car
• 2:57- Finneas extends his hand out to Billie who is sitting right next to him and they interlock fingers and hold hands
• 3:00- They finally look at each other in the face, but Billie’s sorrowful look turns into a smile
• 3:08- They both look out their windows and see that the surface of the ocean is far above them, with the car gradually sinking further down
• 3:22- Billie looks down at her foot and notices water is starting to pour in from underneath the car
• 3:26- They both look at each other calmly and look back straight ahead
• 3:37- The headlights of the car turn off
• 3:38- The water has covered her whole foot and they grasp onto each others hands even tighter
• 3:50- The camera slowly pans out of the drivers seat window with Billie still looking calm and the scenery all pitch black, with the only barely recognizable figure being Billie’s face
• 4:27- The music stops as the video comes to an end, but there is another 20 seconds left of the video where it is just a black screen.

I found out about the video and the song when I went to get a haircut in the middle of February. I remember I walked in to the barbershop and took a seat down to wait, and they had this big TV screen which usually plays music videos. This one time though they were playing this particular song and video and I’ve never heard it before prior to the haircut. As I was looking at and listening to the video I felt something inside of me. I don’t  know if it was sorrow, pain, or even happiness but I felt something. I’ve never seen or heard anything that evoked that feeling that was I was feeling. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it and took another listen at home and it evoked the same feelings. It has grown to be one of my favorite songs and it introduced me to more of Billie’s work. Even now when I watched it again, I viewed in awe and developed even more appreciation for the song and video.

The video’s genre is Pop or Alternative Pop. The intended audience is meant to be teenagers and anyone who is going through something. The social context is that she is a growing pop star and she came to a realization with herself throughout one of her dreams, or as she referred to it as a nightmare. The purpose of the video is to show that as she grows more famous, she has to be more careful with the people she surrounds herself with because as she described in her dream: she got everything she wanted, she killed herself by jumping off the golden state bridge, she thought people would care but they didn’t and they didn’t even shed a tear, rather called her weak. In the chorus of the song, her brother is reassuring her that everything is ok and as long as she has him, no one can hurt her. And he reassures her of her true value. As mentioned in the beginning of the video, her brother is everything to her, and no matter what happens they’ll always stick together side by side. The video is saying fame isn’t everything and to cherish your family as they’ll always be there for you no matter what. P.S. I recommend listening with headphones or a good speaker.