Author: lesly

This picture is from my trip to Miami earlier this year. It is not meant to be an abstract piece of art but it does have memories connected to it. Susan’s “On Photography” talks about collecting the world in her pictures and I agree with her. More than just collecting images of where you have gone, you also bring the memories with you. Every person takes pictures because something caught their attention or is significant enough to photograph the moment. I added brightness to my picture to make the clear blue sky pop out and the trees as well. I also used the .5 feature that apple provides to span out your camera view. When I look at my pictures I get happy because I remember the warm sun in the picture and the food we ate after the picture.  Collecting pictures is fun to look back at later in time as well

1. 1. During the “retrenchment period” at CUNY, there were almost 5000 layoffs of faculty and staff causing newly won ethic study classes to close and threats to close CUNY’s like Hostos and Medgar because of the Fall 1976 Tuition policy. Tuition increased and there were budget cuts to the state. These cuts and tuition increases resulted in an increase in neoliberalism and supports the idea that CUNY’s need to have tuition and by doing so creates many borders for people who can not afford to pay these amounts to a college. The massive budget cuts also resulted in staff being laid off, so not only were students not able to continue their education but people lost their jobs. With Covid-19 the economic downfall caused 3000 adjuncts to lose their jobs and hundreds lost their healthcare coverage. Also terminating other campus workers for Fall 2020. These two situations both impacted CUNY in a negative direction but in both cases, students and faculty suffered the most. They lost their jobs, their availability to go to school and their assurance to be healthy. 
   2. Reed uses the term “death cult” in the context that taking away CUNY from students who come from minority communities is beneficial to the people at the top, people with money. Students go to CUNY because it is affordable and it is an opportunity for someone to continue going to school. By making Cuny expensive, the cuny system is killing the hopes of many people and converting it to a system that cares more about the money than people. While this is happening, it was undoing the work of protestors in wanting to keep CUNY free and available for the most part. Death Cult is referring to neoliberalism taking away once again. 
   3. The Fall 2019 Latinx Student Alliance 

   Students wrote “to see themselves in their classes, to see themselves as possible authors of their own texts” 

    In summation, the letter stated that the students want more Latinx and African American literature added to the core requirements. Lehman is 50% made up of Hispanic or Latino students and they want more diversity in their literature. Lehman only had British-focussed Literature and the students didn’t resonate  and connect with that type of literature. Because Lehman was the first institution to form cultural studies in CUNY, it is only fair to diversify these studies for everyone. All in all, students want to increase different cultural studies in Lehman because history can not only be seen in a specific way and they want their education to be broad and diverse from history that erased people from its texts.

 

 

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1AQLnQRAGEEKkq6w3vholPPFTBsviRoGKvb5YD01x684/edit?usp=sharing

The piece of art I chose for my art criticism paper, is “This is America” by Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino. It is a music video portraying the central message of gun violence and race in America. In the music video, Gambino’s dance moves are poses from Jim Crow pictures. All of the dancers in the video were black. Gambino also only had grey pants on and is shirtless, representing his humanity. Throughout the video there are men in rags getting shot by a gun. Showing how different black people are treated than machines which are used to kill them. Also touching with past history of segregation. Capitalism can also be tied to his video based on the red cloths he chose to interpret into his video. This red rag was the rag used to lightly wrap the gun, while the man in the white rag was dragged away. There is a lot of imagery and metaphors inside Gambino’s music video. It’s video was released in 2018, with an explanation from Donald. His explanation was “ I just wanted to make a good song. Something to play of Fourth of July”. His explanation is ironic because the Fourth of July is an American holiday to represent independence and freedom.

In my essay I will provide all or hopefully key imagery examples and metaphors Donald included in his video. As well as go deeper into Jim Crow laws, segregation, violence, race, police brutality and gun violence in the USA towards black Americans.

I chose Adrian Piper “Decide Who You Are, Anita Hill”.

Just looking at the picture, the words are written in red. Red resonates with a feeling of anger and that was the first tone that was set in my head. There is a black little girl on the bottom center smiling and the poem is like a family figure or a close friend telling the little girl that her life is full of obstacles and that she needs to prepare for what will come to her, as well as how to become into what society wants her to become. The words also go on top of the little girl making it seem like she’s trapped behind these words.

The text can also be portrayed as a social concern. It can be seen as a rich and a poor person. A man and a woman and also race. It reminds me most of the Black Lives Matter movement where the line  “Whats the matter? You’ll get over it” applies to the racist mentality USA had on the movement.

This art piece is very visual, which catches my attention. The wording of this text is like being inside a persons head and reading their thoughts. A person feeling this way should already be a political and social concern because it is like they are chained up with no where to go. Art can also shed light to important times in history and reminds us why it is always better to move forward and never back.

 

While reading my selected paragraphs and doing my sentence analysis, I noticed a mix of simple and complex sentences.  I like to use commas in my writing and since it is an analytical essay, explaining your thought process is necessary.  This wasn’t a big surprise to me because I tend to use a lot of simple sentences to explain the complex sentences further. In a way I think I don’t explain my quotes enough and that I need to do that more. What I understood by my sentence analysis is that I need to mix up my sentence structure more often. Also because it was a draft, I just wanted to get all of my ideas on paper and see where I can expand from there. Today’s class also helped because I realized I can also connect the timelines. It would help my essay flow smoothly and would be helpful input to my reader. I can also work on my grammar and the vocabulary I use to connect my sentences. That would turn simple sentences into compound complex sentences. I noticed 2-3 complex-compound sentences but I should use more to explain my thoughts. There was a lot to work with in both articles included in my essay. I felt like Dickson was very thorough in her essay and explained very well what she meant. It hard to rephrase those quotes because she did explain it perfectly and it flows very well with my essay also causing me to use a lot of simple sentences. 

While reading the articles “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, It made me realize how race and income level plays a huge role in where you are located geographically. Based on where you are living you are vulnerable to the disasters global warming can cause. Racial Capitalocene stated “It (Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, a report by the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ) showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” Placing these waste facilities in areas that are populated by low income minorities proves that the government thinks of these communities as trash. Throughout the article it states that these climatic changes that were caused by the government have affected black communities the most. From stripping gold, oil, land and other scares resources from other countries through colonialism to slavery, where human beings “were forced to share its social product” meaning themselves. In New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants, Sophie Kasakove expressed how the working, low income residents were kicked out from their homes following hurricane sandy. Programs specifically designed to help victims of the hurricane, were extremely slow and till this day most of those people are still waiting. Because the neighborhood is made up of the working class, they could not afford to live anywhere else because of how high rent has gotten.Those who did leave also left an impact on Jamaica Bay. “The flight of working class homeowners from these neighborhoods accelerated gentrification”. The community did not have the economic status to rebuild their homes and programs did not help them either, this goes to show the government does not care about the minority communities, when it allows capitalism to flourish.

Throughout my life, as a resident of New York City, I have witnessed the effects of neoliberalism and noticed my own community change with it. Starting off with health insurance, although there are programs built into the system to help low income communities be able to receive the care and help they need, you need a social security to be eligible to apply. Most low income communities are filled with immigrants in search for a better life. Privatization of insurance companies don’t only make it harder for these low income communities to apply for insurance, but make it a financial barrier for them as well.
With Covid-19 and the pandemic as a whole, everyone was affected disregarding your social class. Having insurance as a financial barrier families lived though an extremely tough experience, and were in debt coming out of hospitals. Covid-19 tests that were once free are now on the market for profit. I had an experience where I went to get COVID tested, standing on line for hours only to be told that the tests have ran out. Having to get tested by any means, I went to a location in Manhattan and there were about 8 people on line.

School, a public industry for all children to receive an education has also been turned into a neoliberal practice. Depending on the school you go too, the cost varies. Private investors in these schools have a heavily weighted opinion when it comes to the school making decisions as well. Families who can afford to send their children to these private institutions or pay for a tutor to pass exams made for these schools are put at an disadvantage. Education is valuable in New York City.  Neoliberalism affects communities not fit for the image of New York City.

Like in the passage by Dickson, she mentions how graffiti does not compliment the image of New York. Following this, society put a negative stereotype on black and Latino men, calling them criminals and thugs. This only goes to show economic value is more important in the acts of neoliberalism than the health or happiness of its citizens.