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Crash

This was originally an assignment for Sociology, but after reading it- I thought it would be a good idea to post. I know that Crash was a great, some might say- controversial, movie but I thought it gave a great message and here's my (formal) reflection. Enjoy.

         

  After watching Crash, I realized that everybody is under the influence of some type of racial prejudice. Some people are considered racist pigs that need to review their values. However, thankfully, it’s more of a subconscious feeling in most people. Even with this fact, I was scared that I already had a racial filter in front of my eyes. I was comforted to later find out that it is simply impossible for a Homo sapiens’s brain to not pass judgment when looking at a stranger for the first time. It is our evolutionary instinct. It’s in our DNA. But now that we have grown up by thousands of years and the cautious watch for danger is not so urgent, this judgment can be utilized in harmful ways. This movie opened up my eyes to how large of an impact something as simple as your race, social status, or job can have on your life.

            In many ways, this movie reinforced stereotypes of all kinds. When Jean told Rick to change the locks in case her Latino locksmith gave the new key to his “gang-banger homies”, she had already made a judgment, decided it could have a negative effect on her life, and then acted upon it. Or at an earlier time when Anthony assumed the worst as Jean reached over to cuddle Rick. (In the movie, it is unclear whether she moved to “cuddle” her husband or because she felt “threatened” and wanted “protection”. Either way, Anthony definitely thought it was because she wanted protection from the oncoming black men [referring to him and Peter].) These instances show that every day, we constantly assume and judge based on what people look like without actually giving them a chance to prove whether they are as negative or positive as originally perceived.

If I heard the same judgments that Jean made about Daniel every day; I know I would want to rip my skin off just so I could be perceived and therefore, treated better. This leads me to my next point that says Crash challenges racial and social stereotypes. One of the few examples of this was when Daniel returned the new set of keys to Jean so there would be no temptation to give them to his “gang-banger homies”. Although Daniel Ruiz also made racial judgments (all of which were mostly inferred by the viewer), he was one of the few characters in Crash that stood up to judgments, tried to break stereotypes and change people’s minds about what being Latino really meant. Besides for Daniel, I think Crash opened a lot of people’s eyes to what being racially prejudice means and how harmful the affects can be on everybody. This is the final reason why I though this movie challenged stereotypes. Because I know of at least one person who is now conscious of her “filter”, constantly checks herself to try and rid prejudices in her life and strives to meet everyone’s gaze with the same openness as she would treat a friend. Me.  

I hope that you will accept my challenge and do the same. 

The Hague Has Kony's Name On It

The Hague: the capital city of the province of South Holland in Netherlands. Home of the International Criminal Court AKA the ICC. These guys aren't with the UN, but they're still considered very good at policing international crime. 

The first man that was ever put on their list of criminals is named Joseph Kony: the one that no one seems to care about.

His crime: abducting children in Central and Eastern Africa to fuel the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) he runs. He transforms the boys into killing machines and the girls into sex slaves. These children have no choice but to obey for fear of their lives. These kids end up murdering their parents, because no one in the whole wide world ever gave a care: until now.

Actually... it's been about 9 years since Invisible Children (a group of people focused on bringing Kony down) started to raise awareness and help fight Kony. Recently, President Obama sent 100 military advisers to Uganda serve justice once and for all.

Here's the issue: Invisible Children is a non-profit organization that fundraises money to help the cause. (Recently, they've built radio towers to alert remote villages if the LRA has been spotted. This not only saves families- it saves lives.)But... there's speculation as to how much money actually goes into the cause. According to stats, only 32% of the fundraised 8 million dollars last year, made it to Uganda. That is where people stop reading the article. The thing they then fail to see is: the other 66% goes to two other things: awareness products and programs, and it also helps go to Central African programs (like the ICBC or Schools for Schools etc.) 

 Don't trust me? See for yourself: [Click on the picture if you cannot read the fine print.]

So no, I'm not concerned whether I'm supporting a group that doesn't really care about what they're doing. Three, middle-class, white guys devoting their lives to this cause until it's over: I think "passion" is an understatement. 

If you want to help this cause, watch this video to learn more. It is probably the best way you can use your time if you're reading this blog: I would rather you watch this video right now then read the rest of the blog- it's that important. It's okay though: I'm ending the blog with one last thing to say:

Are you willing to fight for this cause: "Where you live SHOULD NOT determine whether you live" 

I know I am.  

Want to learn more about the ICC? Go here:
http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/About+the+Court/
Want to learn more about Invisible Children and how to help? Visit this website:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Go. Make change. It's the best feeling in the world (trust me). 

Good and Evil

Cancer. It gives me chills just typing the word. Thankfully, my close family hasn't been affected by it a lot (my uncle has a slow cancer meaning his "time to go" will probably come before the cancer can do any harm like that). But the scary thing is, I know so many people in my community and in the world that have to live through this. Immediately, you wonder- what type and how long do I have? Yes- the most horrifying side of any illness or disease is death.

Whew! Okay, now that we got that end of the spectrum taken care of; let's examine this situation another way. Cancer was thought to be first discovered around 500 B.C. with the Ancient Egyptians [then again- they discovered a lot so that's not surprising at all]. From then, the rate of people getting cancer has gone up... well, at first it looks like an exponential graph but there are valid reasons for this. One of the basic reasons is simply stated as: the human population grew... a lot. We have more people on Facebook then there were in the 1800's. And as we grew- so did medicine and technology. I know this may sound really bad (and I have contemplated a lot about posting this with the fear that it might offend some people. I really hope it doesn't), but if  cancer didn't come around- the world would've never been introduced to the crazy-advanced medicine we have today. Medicine that has saved lives. So yes- cancer has taken the lives of many. But how many people have lived on to remember those who have died for them and end up cherishing their lives forever? Is it worth it? [When I ask that question, I don't mean to say, "Is it worth it for people to die in order for others to live" necessarily- I'm asking "if you're going to die anyways- isn't it better to save other people with a lesser version of you're problem before you go?"]

Also something to think about. I have noticed that death and hardship bring people freakishly together. Like-evangelical-conservatives-hugging-liberals together. There's something about hardships (great example would be cancer and death), that bring us so close. My theory is that people come together when they have a shared experience. The feeling of "I'm a cancer survivor and so are you and I can't believe we are both alive today". I don't know if that's the only reason, because to me, that sounds like a really simple answer to explain sentence number two in this paragraph. But for once, I'm not so curious as to why we come together. I'm curious to see whether the title statement is really true: Are good and evil really tied at the hip so much that both of them show themselves at every occasion?

It makes me wonder: with every horrifying, dreadful, heart-dropping, bone-chilling, tear-filled experience... how can there be any good left when all that bad is clouding my vision. My dad, who practices Tai-Chi, says that in Chinese culture and with those customs- they believe that every evil comes with good (yin and yang). There is always balance. I know it's quite a mental workout and sometimes you have to be a pervert or heartless to think like this, but I push myself everyday to try and balance every experience. Got an F on a test? I will never make that stupid mistake of 2*3=5 ever again. Joseph Kony is making child soldiers? How can we use what we learned now to help more people later? Somebody in the next town over got raped? We now have one more person on the job who can spread the word- help prevent it. People dying every three seconds? It may be heartless to say, but it's preventing us from overpopulation. Now you may not agree with my thinking, but I challenge you to try it for a day... maybe you'll change the world. I know it's opened my eyes to some things that I'm going to change when I grow up: maybe you'll do the same.

P.S. I sincerely hope I didn't offend anybody with this post, and I apologize from the deep soul in my heart if I did. I also want ya'll to know that of course- there's a time for mourning, there's a time for remembrance... there's a time and place for everything. And it is only after you have been through this respectful process, that it's time to use the method of finding good int he hardship. Because yes, it is sometimes terrible to think like that and it is only possible once you have come to terms with the experience. Then you think- "What about you? Are you okay with rape and child soldiers?" No I'm of course not "okay" with it. I'm just the type of person that accepts the situation at hand and immediately thinks of how she can use this terrible experience at hand to change the world.

 

Thank you to Kevin Medansky for sparking this blog: shaving your head raises a lot of awareness.

Don't know who Joseph Kony is? Visit this website to find out more: [P.S. STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT BLOG all about him]

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war

Thanks to (for the picture):

http://waterytart23.blogspot.com/2010/12/grab-bag.html