Retrospective

In the past 15 weeks whilst in Writing 140, I've learned a vast amount of writing tools and information through the tied class, Black Social Movements. I've learned how to deeply research a topic or issue not just on the surface, but how to distinguish sources from each other so that I may find sources like first-hand accounts or an academic journal on the topic instead of a second-hand article that has been passed down over the years through word-of-mouth. A simple overview of a topic is no longer enough– it is up to me as the researcher to find unique factoids of information and connect my discoveries to my knowledge on the topic to make my own formatted essay on the topic, as compared to following the format of another's overview online. Through the process of blogging, as well as writing different styles of essays, I have learned the different voices a writer can hold that come out depending on the type of writing he is encountering. Blogging is very much a personal style of writing that is not as focused on the logistics of one's writing but the emotions and opinions that one holds. I believe this style, blogging, is what I will be using the most in my future as a journalist, but it is also very important that I keep articles as bias-free and grammatically correct as possible, and that is where my techniques that I've learned in Writing 140 will come in handy. It is possible that my career will require me to be a blogger of some sorts, and the tools I've learned in this class will certainly help me further explore the world of blogging.

Visions & Voices Extra Credit #2: An Intimate Evening With Lee Daniels

An intimate number of seats in the ballroom fill up, the lights dim, and a video montage of racially-infused drama films–Precious, The Paperboy, and The Butler, to name a few–begins to play. After the 5 minutes of video clips comes to an end, a spotlight shines on a 53 year old African-American male. This man happens to be the director of these critically acclaimed, box-office successful, academy award nominated films. On Wednesday, November 20, director Lee Daniels gave a very special, candid speech. Lee Daniels did not shy away from any hardships or intimate moments in his autobiographical speech, and he certainly did not hesitate to answer any of the audience's boundary-pushing questions.

Seeing the USC campus and the 17,000+ "extremely blessed" undergraduate students made Daniels wish he had the same opportunity as we do to receive a great education and college experience. But unfortunately for Daniels, college was not his first concern; growing up in the South Western Philadelphia Projects, just surviving was a daily feat. Daniels struggled with a lot of hard issues growing up, particularly his homosexuality and his relationship with his father, who died a tragic death when he was a mere 13 years old. His father always told Daniels one thing: that he "wouldn't be anything." The doubt from Lee Daniel's father is what motivated him to strive for the impossible, push boundaries never been touched before, and overall, become that something his dad said he could never be.

After his father's death, Daniels was left to raise 4 younger siblings. He learned to read from the segregation signs that read: "Whites Only" and "Black Only". He tried to sell drugs to support his family, as that was the only market in his area, but it didn't work out. Daniels moved to LA and began his artistry as a theatre director. He watched some of his closest friends die in his arms due to HIV. Nobody even wanted to be around Daniels, because as a gay man, everyone assumed he had HIV and that it would spread by contact. While Lee Daniels was heavily involved in hard drugs, Daniel's brother went to jail. The wife didn't want to take care of their kids, so his brother's kids were thrown into his custody. What Daniels thought was a favor for his brother, ending up being a favor for himself– his newly adopted children helped him get sober.

After fighting his way up the film industry in LA, Daniels finally found a way to support his family while helping turn his own life around– “I live my life through my films, they’re very therapeutic for me" he states. Issues that he dealt with in his life are common themes in his movies: poverty, illiteracy, death, drug addictions, obesity, sexuality, shootings, racism, etc. Something that struck me in particular, because we talked so much on the taboo of racism in society and the media, was how afraid Daniels was to explain to his children why some White people treat them differently. Daniels was able to combat this taboo for himself through the creation of his film The Butler, and he ensures us this by explaining how “it is politically incorrect to talk about racism in Hollywood or America, it’s just not cool, you’ve got to shut the f**k up and do your thing. And I’m not that guy anymore.” Indeed, after what some may view as the creation of an iconic film, Lee Daniels is no longer that dad too afraid to talk to his children about racism.

Sometimes throughout the filming of The Butler, Daniels had to stop filming because the scenes became too real for him. He mentions the bus scene in which the Whites and the Blacks lashed out against each other and how it struck a chord with him, saying it's "not good to not act because it reaches a level of reality”– that reality being what his mother, aunts, and uncles went through in the Civil Rights Movement. Listening to the extremely successful and refreshingly humble director Lee Daniels speak cemented the bridge between modern-day story telling and the history and race relations I am learning about in Writing 140 and my Black Social Movements courses.

Public Discourse and Bad Faith Argumentation is Fatal to American Public

Our current model of public discourse certainly rewards bad faith argumentation through the mutual relationship of the viewer and the reporter/debater/host/etc. The reporter wants to attract to the viewer through theatrical tactics of political debate to spark interest, entertainment, and viewers. The viewer wants to be entertained, and therefore the bad faith argumentation full of theatrical attacks and ad hominem is rewarded with viewers and the benefit of staying on air. I also believe bad faith argumentation is rooted in unfair bias- due to the corporation, their sponsors', the writers', and the reporter's own personal beliefs. These workers for a large cable news network often feel the need to express their personal beliefs to the public, instead of informing the public. In the Rush Limbaugh show, the radio host used the word “n—a” when discussing the case of Trayvon Martin. This ad hominem attack of bad faith argumentation sent a signal to his over 15 million weekly listeners that using the extremely offensive N word is acceptable. And although the word is completely unacceptable to be used, his followers will believe and repeat almost anything he says, therefore unethical rhetoric is encouraged in this situation. This is also similar to Bill O'Reilly's comments when discussing the Hawaiian drug issues "35% of the Hawiian population is Asian... ...Asians are usually more industrious and hardworking." His racial profiling comments slipped right by without notice, and the casualty of the racism only rewards bad faith argumentation. 

Japanese American Internment

For this research paper, I am choosing The Japanese American Internment and the war relocation camps that followed during World War II. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a huge sense of racism swept the nation and almost all Japanese-Americans were stripped of their property and relocated into miserable and abusive internment camps. This controversial part of our history needs to be reevaluated and further taught more prominently as it is a major shortfall in our American history. I also believe that it is a major lesson in history that can still be applied to today's society. For example, just because America was attacked by Arabic Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001, does not mean that American-Arabs or Muslims shared any part of the anti-American sentiment that the terrorists did. It is an important lesson because it proves that America must respect and not look down upon the ethnicity that America happens to be at war with or had been attacked by. To assume that the Japanese-Americans living in America in 1942 were spies and had anything to do with the attacks on Pearl Harbor was plain speculation based off racist ideals and no solid facts, yet Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the internment of Japanese-Americans. It is a shameful event in American history indeed, but it is a lesson worth teaching.

The Race Card Project– Productive or Reductive?

The Race Card Project opens up a unique manner of discussion on the subject of racial relations. TRCP allows writers–disclosed or revealed– to create a "race card", a 6 word entry describing their feeling or experience with racism throughout their life and community. The format allows writers and readers to get to the point without any fluff that might come with an argument on race, which is an effective benefit to this project. This project allows ideas to be spread and discussed that would not have been discussed formally before, and opens up a discussion in a typically more formal and respectful manner than the typical blog commenters are. Although there will always be trolls, the environment on TRCP seems to be more mature and professional, which was its intended purpose. I think that The Race Card Project is a great idea and that it could even be expanded more by created physical walls in public downtown areas where the cards would be printed off and posted and also allow the average passerby to write their own card. I think moving TRCP from the virtual world to the physical would double as an effective discussion on race and also as an attractive mural or piece of artwork.