Fighting Injustice?

Dear Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement Director)

While your film certainly should be commended for its analysis and valuable lessons on prejudice, I have a few questions on the choices you while directing of this film. First, doesn’t the act of classifying yourself as a Jew and posting this as the eye-grabbing headline inherently acknowledge and possibly increase the divide between the groups? Though of course, the film portrays Green as a unprejudiced individual and the intentions of the article were true, it seems that the article was written at the root for financial gain. The fact that these “white” newspapers could write about the Jews displays an intrinsic disparity in the privilege of gentiles in the system. In their sick attempt to “create an interesting lead” or angle by exploiting the injustice of Jews, they simply aim to make money especially with the low stakes of their reporter, Green, having the opportunity to revert back to a gentile at the end.

However,  I do acknowledge the article in the film as a first step, especially in the context it is presented in and as it contains several valuable lessons that is often unconsidered. The most important lesson seems to be directed toward non-Jews, in that if they are not necessarily against Jews, but do not take action to fight for them, they are still being anti-semitic for allowing and propagating the injustice. Thus, I wonder what the overall impact this newspaper article could have on changing prejudices for Jews. Going off of this, what do you think the impact of the entire film was in the context of injustice/prejudice as a whole? Thanks.

Derek

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Discern a Race Issue?

Dear Claudia Rankine, I found your writing about Serena Williams to be particularly fascinating and it brings up a lot of questions about the current state of race in corporate America. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on a few things. I'm not sure if the officials in these games were confirmed to be racist in that sense, but if so that would affect the interpretation. If, for example, they have no known racist background, how do you tell if such an incident is inherently about race? You say that the ref didn't like seeing the black body on her court, but without evidence how can you in fact confirm such a thing? Not that I am questioning your assertions directly, but in what situations can you discern that actions are definitely a race issue? I know that there are plenty of situations in which refs have screwed over white men in sports, so I wonder as to how you can tell. Thanks, Vaughan Siker
Read more
Dear Willow S. Lung-Amam, I really loved your piece on the minority myth mostly due to my own experiences with this myth. Yes, we are expected to get amazing grades, be perfect in class, and do all things perfectly, and those expectations are good to some extent. But when these expectations become stereotypes and not parents' projected wishes upon their children, it becomes detrimental to all Asian Americans. I had to force myself to be the best in everything to further the stereotype of academic exceptionalism. This is exactly why I understand this notion is a myth because Asian Americans do receive privileges that other minority groups may not and and I enjoy certain benefits from being a "model minority," it's definitely detrimental in certain aspects for kids, not only a positive thing. In an ideal world, projecting no stereotypes onto a minority group is the best because less external pressures will affect development of the members of these races.
Read more
Dear Claudia Rankine, I love your book Citizen , from your language style to the way you described the experiences of black people. Using your own experience coupled with those of your friends and celebrities, you build images of everyday racist encounters that shocked me. "The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow." When reading your book, the idea that racism is still rampant in nowadays struck me so hard. Chapter two impressed me most. I am a tennis lover and I have watched a lot of Serena Williams' games. However, I never thought of the hardship she suffered as a black people in such a white dominated sport. The sufferings did not always come from punishments like probationary periods, but from "every look, every comment, every bad call blossom". She tried to fight back once, "reacting immediately to be thrown against a sharp white background", which resulting in loss, fine and probationary period. Later, she learnt t...
Read more