American Horror Story: Racism

On February 24th, the horror film Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele of “Key & Peele,” hit theaters and not only topped the box office, taking in $30.5 million on its opening weekend¹, but also received a score of 100% among top critics on Rotten Tomatoes². Here is the trailer, in case you haven’t seen it:

The movie’s main plot is the racism that exists in the suburb where Rose’s parents live, acting as an extreme microcosm of racism in America. It’s a new take on horror films, which often resort to people’s fear and fascination of the paranormal, instead using white anti-black racism to create suspense and fear within the viewers, which seems to be more effective than the paranormal, if Rotten Tomatoes has any say on it:

Considering its high ratings amongst critics and viewers alike, it seems the general consensus is that racism, and the ways in which racism is acted upon, is terrifying. However, as one Twitter-user pointed out, (white) Americans seem unable (or perhaps unwilling) to recognize and unlearn institutionalized racism in the United States:

Why is it that (white) Americans can watch a movie like Get Out and recognize the horrors of racism, yet when it comes to recognizing or being called out on their own racism, they lash out? Shouldn’t a movie with violently racist white people as the antagonists make people want to change their views on race so as to not embody the antagonists in the real world? Shouldn’t the acknowledgement that racism is terrifying make people more willing to recognize racism in America?

To be fair, it is too early to tell whether Get Out and its social commentary will have any effect on people’s views on race, but we can only hope that this film will be a wake-up call to, at the very least, a percentage of its audience.

-L

  1. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wins-weekend-box-office/story?id=45773237
  2. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/get_out/

 

 

Jeff Sessions’ Recusal

Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General in February of this year, after a career as an Alabama senator from 1997 to 2017. In 1986, he was nominated for the position of federal court judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. The 1986 nomination failed to go through in part because of a recently republicized letter and statement from Coretta Scott King to Strom Thurmond (then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee), the full text of which you can read here. King did “not believe Jefferson Sessions possesses the requisite judgment, competence, and sensitivity to the rights guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws to qualify for appointment to the federal district court.”

1986 letter from Coretta Scott King opposing Jeff Session's then-nomination.

This weekend, Sessions recused himself from any investigation into campaign ties with Russia — citing himself incapable of impartiality and so excusing himself from any potential cases, “since [he] had involvement with the campaign” and there would be a “possible” conflict of interest. However, he made sure to specify “that this announcement should not be interpreted as confirmation of the existence of any investigation, or suggestive of the scope of any such investigation.” At his hearing, Sessions had insisted that he did not have nor know of any “communications with the Russians”; recently, he announced that “[this] reply to the question of Senator Franken was honest and correct as [he] understood it at the time.” He had actually met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice in 2016. Franken later said that “at the very least, this was extremely misleading,” while others have named it perjury, called for a special prosecutor to investigate, and/or called for his resignation.

Sessions’ involvement comes out after Michael Flynn’s forced resignation from National Security Adviser, after lying about discussing sanctions with a Russian official. As of March 3rd, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not recall Sessions to testify about his involvement. He is expected to give a written report on Monday the 6th.

More information about what Sessions has done in the brief time since his confirmation can be found here. For a timeline of what has happened regarding the current administration (including Sessions) and Russian interference in the election, click here. And in related news, here is the text of Trump’s February 28th address to Congress, for those who didn’t want to sit through the hour.

— Lora

 

 

East Meets West, not East Versus West.

Dear readers, this post will be slightly different from the news briefs you have read on this blog (or elsewhere). But for this week, I want to tell a story of an unusual pair. Earlier this week, I attended the talk, “We Stand Against Hate,” hosted by the SEEK Department (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge). At the talk, two speakers against hate crimes, Arno Michaelis and Parkeep Kaleka, re-told their inspiring stories about countering hate and violence with kindness and most importantly, forgiveness.

In a somewhat tragic story, Pardeep Kaleka, a native from India, lost his father to a crime of hate and violence on the fifth of August on 2012. On that very day, Kaleka, along with his daughter and son, was on his way to a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. When Kaleka got to the temple, he learned from a police officer that there was a mass shooting; several hours later, Kaleka also learned about his father’s death. Kaleka went on talking about his responding to the tragic incident – a response filled not with hatred but with knowledge and forgiveness. I remember that I was moved by one of Kaleka’s speeches when he mentioned how he and the Sikh community blamed the situation onto themselves that part of the reasons the shooting took place was because they (the Sikh community) were not open enough to the non-Sikh community, so they made it their responsibility to reach out and educate their youth, their neighbors, and the rest of the community.

Arno Michaelis grew up in an alcoholic household where emotional violence was considered the norm. At seventeen, Michaelis was deeply involved in the white power movement and was formerly a founding member of a racist organization in the world. In the past, Michaelis frequently expressed hostility towards anyone with a darker skin complexion than his. Michaelish spoke of his beating others to the point of hospitalization over their race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Michaelis spoke of the many stories where he was met with the kindness and forgiveness from those whom he once hated – the kindness and forgiveness that slowly drew Michaelis out of the cycle fueled with hate and violence, changing the course of his life. I distinctly remember the story Michaelis told of his encounter with an old, black lady working at McDonald each time he visited the restaurant. Each time Michaelis visited the restaurant, and each time in his 5-minutes contact with the aforementioned lady, he was met with her smile, despite his effort trying to hate black people. In the end, the lady’s smile moved Michaelis. It wasn’t until Michaelis became a single parent that he began to distance himself from the movement. Sometimes after the aforementioned mass shooting incident, Michaelis joined with the survivor of violent extremism, Pardeep Kaleka. The two formed a very close bond, found Serve2Unite, an organization dedicated to countering hate and violence with the practice of kindness, and made it their mission to help those who welcome them cultivate a peaceful life and peaceful world.

The talk was very well received – a full house, in fact. Because the talk was an hour and a half long, I apologize if you feel I have left out too much details about the stories. While the talk demonstrates the importance of uniting and kindness, the most important takeaway from their stories, I believe, is forgiveness – the very courage to forgive. Forgiveness was what given to Michaelis by people whom Michaelis hated that eventually changed his life. Forgiveness was what gave Kaleka a powerful voice against hate crimes and violence. Essentially, forgiveness was what united the two. Overall, attending the talk gave me hope – something I sorely need, especially after having learned about the distressing news of the vandalism of Jewish cemeteries. The talk also made me think of a number of things. If not through forgiveness, how does one get out of a cycle of violence? I don’t advocate any form of vandalism – but is violence always wrong and harmful? When is it appropriate to use violence? Our country went to war frequently in the past – in this sense, when is it justified to use violence? I don’t have answer to these questions of mine, but we can still advance the discussion. For those who are interested in knowing more of Michaelis’s and Kaleka’s stories and what they do, see the above link.

— Jason