Final Blog

I must say that in short amount of time, we have covered a wide range of topics. We discussed deviant behavior, serial killers, movies, music, the news, copycat affect, fallacies and a lot of other things. Of the topics talked about in class, I must say that my favorite was when we were talking about serial killer and the copycat effect. I liked seeing how some people really do things that they see done in tv or on movies and think that they will be able to replicate those things without getting caught. I also like this topic the most because it allowed for the most conversation and reflection about what causes people to do what they do, and if we as society can really place the blame on the media or if each person acts on their own. I didn’t like the fallacy topic as much as I enjoyed the others. This is because everyone knows that the media has an impact on everyone in some way or another, so trying to pinpoint which fallacy one falls into is not interesting to me. I also thought the reading for this topic was extremely boring as well, which made me even less interested than I was before. I would however like to see the topics about movies and music expanded. I think those were the most interesting broad topics because they have so many things that can be discussed in terms of justice and the media, but because they were the last things we talked about, we didn’t get to discuss some of the other important issues in each of these mediums. If I were to teach a class on media and justice I would focus on the broad categories of media, so music, television, movies and internet. There would be some reading for each of the topic areas as we discussed them, but for each topic I would take some examples and our class discussion would come out of examining those examples and identifying where the justice issues lie within those examples. I would keep the blog assignments, but I would use them as a forum for the students to talk about anything justice related. As long as the blogged twice a week about a justice issue, I wouldn’t care what the specific topic was. I think this would make more people write freely, because they wouldn’t be so worried about structuring what they say to fit a rubric. But that is how I would structure my class.

Rush Hour 2

The film I decided to look at was Rush Hour 2 starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. This movie is about Chris Tucker who works for the LAPD and Jackie Chan that is in charge of the police force in China. The movie shows the time it takes for these two to stop people from laundering fake money into the economy. This was a big justice issue in the movie, because it was important to make sure that the men responsible for doing the laundering did not get away with it. This pertains to the a similar justice issue, which is that people trying to incorporate fake money into the economy, which is not helpful, because it would in the end decrease the value of the American dollar. I know the there was a problem a while ago in which the US was worried about our money production because there was a lot of fake money in circulation. I think this movie did a good job at showing how some police officers will go undercover to unearth the truth. Overall I think this movie gives a good survey of how our justice system works to provide stability for all American people and this movie shows that.

Keep Ya Head Up: Tupac

You tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXwmDGJAB8

Keep Ya Head Up By: Tupac

Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, if don't nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don't need him
And I ain't tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em
You know it makes me unhappy (what's that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

[Chorus]

Keep ya head up, oooo child things are gonna get easier
ooooo child things'll
get brighter [2x]

[Verse Two:]

Aiyyo, I remember Marvin Gaye, used to sing ta me
He had me feelin like black was tha thing to be
And suddenly tha ghetto didn't seem so tough
And though we had it rough, we always had enough
I huffed and puffed about my curfew and broke the rules
Ran with the local crew, and had a smoke or two
And I realize momma really paid the price
She nearly gave her life, to raise me right
And all I had ta give her was my pipe dream
Of how I'd rock the mic, and make it to tha bright screen
I'm tryin to make a dollar out of fifteen cents
It's hard to be legit and still pay tha rent
And in the end it seems I'm headin for tha pen
I try and find my friends, but they're blowin in the wind
Last night my buddy lost his whole family
It's gonna take the man in me to conquer this insanity
It seems tha rain'll never let up
I try to keep my head up, and still keep from gettin wet up
You know it's funny when it rains it pours
They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor
Say there ain't no hope for the youth and the truth is
it ain't no hope for tha future
And then they wonder why we crazy
I blame my mother, for turning my brother into a crack baby
We ain't meant to survive, cause it's a setup
And even though you're fed up
Huh, ya got to keep your head up

[Chorus]

[Verse Three:]

And uhh
To all the ladies havin babies on they own
I know it's kinda rough and you're feelin all alone
Daddy's long gone and he left you by ya lonesome
Thank the Lord for my kids, even if nobody else want em
Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I'm sure
And if you fall, stand tall and comeback for more
Cause ain't nuttin worse than when your son
wants to kno why his daddy don't love him no mo'
You can't complain you was dealt this
hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless
Because there's too many things for you to deal with
Dying inside, but outside you're looking fearless
While da tears, is rollin down your cheeks
Ya steady hopin things don't fall down this week
Cause if it did, you couldn't take it, and don't blame me
I was given this world I didn't make it
And now my son's getten older and older and cold
From havin the world on his shoulders
While the rich kids is drivin Benz
I'm still tryin to hold on to my survivin friends
And it's crazy, it seems it'll never let up, but
please... you got to keep your head up

My Response:

This song does not only look at one justice issue but focuses on the difficulties in being black in America. The song talks about women struggling to raise their children because the fathers leave. To me this is not just a black issue, but an issue that faces many women, but Tupac just focuses on how life occurs through the structure of the black family. Tupac also talks about the government and how he thinks they are only willing to sponsor war but not take initiative to help citizens that don’t have food to eat or a place to stay. This makes me think of when hurricane Katrina came and many people in Louisiana felt that the government did not do their part to make sure they received assistance in having a place to sleep at night and a warm meal. This song also speaks about how men need to stand up and take their place as men in the household and respect the women in their lives. This is important in justice, because often times television will show a man demeaning a woman or the woman being both father and mother to a child, and it has been so evident on tv that we think it is normal and correct. This song shows that it is not correct and should not be tolerated. Although a lot of people would say they would not listen to Tupac because he was a rapper that many would say is a gangster, I believe his lyrics have extremely positive messages and brings up important issues of justice.

Suicide

In reflecting on the guest speaker, I must say that most of the information presented was information that I remember being taught before in school. The one thing that I did not know was that 80% of people will think about suicide at least once in their life. I don’t know how accurate this is, but I know I don’t personally believe that many people have thoughts of committing suicide. I think the speaker had a lot of statistics and made me feel like I was back in middle school health class, which kind of turned me off and bored me, but I suppose it was beneficial to hear new things and new information about suicide. I know it is also beneficial to have tools to assist a friend or if I knew someone that was contemplating suicide. Overall I think we need to stop trying to inform people of how to identify if someone they know is suicidal but focus on making people self reliant and able to understand if they see characteristic in themselves.  Thinking about suicide in general, it seems to have become an epidemic in today’s society. It has become so normalized that people will begin to believe that it is okay. I really think that we should begin to look at people in the college age group to try to identify what is causing people to believe suicide is the only option they have and work to encourage life and success without making them feel babied and talked down to. This will be difficult to accomplish because we won’t be able to generalize because all people are different, but I think focusing on people as individuals and not just as a collective group will be beneficial.

Halloween

In honor of Halloween I know I have been watching plenty of scary movies. I think it is interesting to see how people are really afraid of these films and when thinking about justice and class I think it would be interesting to see why people are so scared of Halloween and scary movies. I would say that the fear that originates during this time is only present because of what the media has trained us to be afraid of. People are only scared, because they have been taught to be fearful. I think this really applies to the season and I think it would be really interesting if there was a way to test how fearful someone would be of scary movies if they were taught early on, that instead of scary movies that the characters were really funny. I know this seems really far stretched, because it has been engrained in us from a young age to be fearful of such things, but I wonder what the outcome would be. On another note, I think Halloween is an extremely fun time for people of all ages, and society has made this day one that allows people do things they wouldn’t do on a regular basis. All in all I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable day and eats all the candy they can, and don’t forget to take in a good horror movie to see if you are really scared because of what is going on, or if you are scared because of what society has told you is scary since you were young.

For Colored Girls

For this blog I thought I would look at something that I haven’t really looked at before. I have been paying a lot of attention to the information being given about Tyler Perry’s movie called For Colored Girls. I thought this was interesting first, because the trailer a previews for the movie don’t really tell what the show was going to be about, but further research would should that this movies is based on Ntozake Shange's play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf." I thought this was interesting because the play was about various controversial issues that arise in not only being a black woman, but a woman in general. The justice question from this however arises in that as a society we are still uncomfortable when discussing racial issues and sensitive topics, such as rape, abortion, abuse and other things. The basic information provided on tv about this movie completely leaves some people ignorant to the fact that the movie exists and what to expect when going to the theatre. As sad as it may be, I can predict that not many diverse populations will go to see this movie when it comes out next week. This is because as a culture we are still uncomfortable with the topics of race that I mentioned earlier. I must admit that when I first saw the previews for the movie I was not excited about going to see it, but now I look forward to seeing how the struggles of African American women will play out on screen and I hope to see women of other ethnicities in the theatre as well, because at the end of the day, we are all women, and most of our challenges will be universal for this very reason.

1998 film

After watching the 1998 film about copycat examples, I must say it was really creepy to believe that people actually are willing to imitate what they see done in tv and movies. The first example that shocked me was the one that showed the couple from Europe that would meet people, get engaged, get married, and then kill them for the insurance money. The couple would then leave Europe and come to the United States and live off the money. I was really shocked about these crimes, because they got away with this crime for a long time. I never would have thought so many people would commit crimes all in the name of doing something that they had already seen. The other example that made me laugh more than anything was when the women robbed a bank just as they had seen in the movie Set It Off. This was shocking to me, because I love that movie, but have never thought to use what I have seen in it to commit a robbery. I think people that commit crimes such as this lack the understanding of reality and what is fabricated to produce an interesting story line. The other example would be the Scream example. I know I have never seen the movies myself, but I can only imagine having someone fully dressed in a costume coming to murder just as they have in the movie. This is extremely scary and I bet the victims were overwhelmed in the beginning and obviously fearful in the end. As far as the copycat phenomenon I think it is ridiculous that people are willing to sacrifice the rest of their lives all for a moment of exhilaration. I also think that in general it is pure stupidity, because they only see what it right in front of them but they don’t look into the fact that they will be caught. In the end copying what you see on tv or movies is a stupid and irresponsible thing to do, because you sacrifice your life for an outcome seen in a movie, but often forget that what’s done in a movie is not real life.