Some of my thoughts on this section...

There were many things in this section that are worth discussing, but certain parts stood out to me most. The first would be when Anna Deveare Smith switches back at forth in the same moment between the character of Daryl Gates and the character of Mrs. June Park. The immediate shifts between the two characters created a powerful effect, because it shows how what they’re saying is connected but it still shows their individual point of view on what they were discussing. This also allows comparison between the two, especially emotionally. While Gates seems monotonous about the situation, Park is full of anger and confusion as to why her husband was shot.

Secondly, I thought Smith’s portrayal of Elaine Young was really interesting. To see a woman of color appear as a privileged white woman kind of made the act satirical in a way. I definitely saw this presentation as mocking racial privilege. This is because of the tone of Smith’s voice and how she is displaying  stereotypes that come with a privileged white woman. Her entire interview shocked me because it showed me just how selfish a privileged person can be.

Elaine Young starts her interview by talking about her date, and at first didn’t even address the issue of the riots and chaos that were happening around her. She also makes the writer of the letter seem in the wrong for bashing on her for “Having fun at the Beverly Hills hotel during the riots”. Elaine Young acts guilty for a fleeting moment and says “No way in the world did I mean to be flippant on television about the riots” but then continues to mention how “There we were at the Beverly Hills Hotel” and “At a certain point you just have to say let me put this out of my mind and be done.” This shows that she doesn’t actually seem to care about the riots, and all she talks about is the Beverly Hills Hotel and how nothing else mattered because she felt safe there. She even states that she is just thankful that she is alive and that all she will do is hope that people will be alive when it is all over. This really angered me because she knows that she is privileged, but instead of using that privilege to help others in a time of need she is using to her own advantage to get out of any situations where she would have to care about less privileged people.

Thoughts on the Week 2 Assignment

One segment that I would like to speak to is the moment when Smith portrayed the witness that was not allowed to testify. I think this speaks directly to the way that narratives can be created and shaped to convey one particular narrow-minded idea of what is right. I was especially intrigued by this segment because it made me think about the way that the court can pick and choose who testifies, affecting the judgement of the jury, and even the overall verdict. This woman was so taken aback by the court's decision not to have her testify, and she exclaimed that without a testimony like hers, the officers would surely be acquitted. Minority voices are often ignored and tossed to the side, and I believe that is exactly what happened here. I thought it was very important of Smith to include this moment in her performance to address the idea of this narrative and who gets to create it.

I would also like to bring up another segment from the performance. I was very struck when watching Smith's portrayal of the anonymous male juror, particularly because of his explanation of the way his life was dramatically changed after the verdict was announced. What an interesting angle to explore that we don't get to see very often, especially in a case like this. A moment that especially stuck out me was when the juror said that he and other members of the jury felt like "pawns to the system". Were he and the other jurors just blindly contributing to a narrative already written for them? The juror is obviously feeling an overwhelming amount of emotions such as guilt, fear, and shame. In the performance, Smith is crying and wiping away tears, which is very humanizing. The vulnerability Smith illustrates through her performance gives insight to what it could possibly be like to be in this situation. Being a juror on a trial like this would be so incredibly stressful and demanding. It would effect all aspects of ones life, not just during the trial, but as emphasized through this interview, after the trial as well. Going from being a normal citizen to having to constantly fear for the safety of oneself and ones family is a reality for this anonymous juror, something I could never possibly fathom.

Next Text

Hi group,
The next book we're going to be studying is PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi. Please obtain/order if you haven't already!

Thanks.

Update: 2/12

Hello!

A few people have said they're having a harder time accessing the blog since I set it to private, even if they're already logged in. I've reset it to public until I have a little more time to devote to why this might be the case.

Also, I'd like to speak to each of you in person this week, before we go on break. You can come with others in the class or on your own, but if we don't usually cross paths, please send me an e-mail or stop by to visit. Thank you!

Week 3 Assignment and Updates

Hi all. This will be the last assignment before the Winter Break. Some of you are behind on posting and I want to give you a chance to catch up. Please be sure you complete ALL the assignments, even if it feels after the fact.

This assignment will wrap up our work with Twilight, excluding, hopefully, our visit with the Director sometime after break. Within a week, I'll post a survey asking for some formal feedback on this text.

Finally, if you haven't read Just Mercy, I HIGHLY encourage you to make time to read as much as possible before Bryan Stevenson visits. I'd like to start another post about elements of that book that we can chat about before and after his visit.

Be well and please don't hesitate to stop by and chat about this class or anything else. I'm in Room 209 in the morning and Linda Vernon's room in the afternoon (for the most part).

Changing the Narrative :: Week Three Assignment

Watch: Twilight to the end.

Read: Twilight: 1-2 more narratives of your choosing. But really, take some time to read Just Mercy. 

Write:  Answer the following questions about Twilight (these have been adapted from a discussion held at UC-Davis about the text and film). No required length, but be thoughtful. Please submit these to me only  (in hard copy or via email) no later than Thursday, February 16.

1)    The personal testimonies in Twilight show how people’s experiences, backgrounds, values, etc. influenced their perceptions of events.  Examining a few of the narratives in particular (ones you read for this week or ones we’ve read previously) did such differences affect:

a.     The words people used to describe the event – riot, uprising, civil unrest, revolution

b.     The things that made some people fearful and how much fear they felt?

c.      How much anger or rage people experienced?

d.     What actions people chose to take?

2)    After these events in Los Angeles, many public officials were quick to ask the community to “heal.”  In your community—Roeper, your identity groups, etc.—what wounds exist and what needs to be done to address them? (Keep in mind that not every “wound” has to be an issue of injustice on the level of systemic racism.)

3)    Anna Deavere Smith calls Twilight a “Call to Community.”  What do you think she meant by this?  How can we foster discussions about race and racism in our communities?

4)    In what ways do theater and other forms of artistic expression (music, film) move forward conversations in ways that more conventional discussion can’t? How do you see those ideas at work in Twilight?

Elaine Young and Aspects of White Privilege

Smith’s portrayal of Elaine Young really makes me think about white privilege and what it means to be white and an ally. The way that Smith speaks as Young, could be seen as mockingly but I feel that Smith is merely trying to show how uneducated Young was.  Young repeatedly mentions the Beverly Hills Hotel making it seem that being there during the riots was something that she was proud of/had to brag about. I think that Smith was annoyed with Young while interviewing her (frankly I would be too) because going back to Smith’s voice for Young, it is very nasally and represent the vibe that I feel she was giving off to Smith.

            It really frustrated me when Young said “let me put this out of my mind and go on” because the fact that she could forget what was happening in her surroundings and continue to live her privileged life is very relatable to people today. People ignore these issues, hoping that they will just go away and then they don’t get involved or take sides in anything because it is easier mentally, emotionally, and socially. To me, that is something very relevant today. On election day, I believe that people who did not want to vote for any of the candidates voted for their dogs, or Obama, or anything else which ended up hurting our country. White middle/upper class people are the main cause of this ignorance.

            White privilege is a topic that everyone is aware of but if you went up to someone on the street and asked them what white privilege meant would they would be able to give you a solid definition/description? I would think not... This is due to the lack of education and discussions with white/of European decent people about what it means to be white and how if you are white/of European decent how you can be an ally to minorities. Even though talking to the whole population about this is a very big dream and not very reachable I feel like it could make a dent in society education.

            The difference between Elaine Young and Henry Keith Watson is very great. The anger and emotion that was involved in the transition startled me as the tone immediately changed. How Smith presented this was brilliant as it immediately catches the eye of the watcher and really makes you see the different perspectives more clearly.

My thoughts...

1.    I watched Twilight all the way through and there were certain aspects of the film that I noticed. Some of them pertaining to the questions that were posted. One being that the silencing of the juror to me was like brushing truth under the rug. As if people don’t care much about what the truth actually is which at this point should not be as surprising as it was because we have seen recently, but really for centuries that some people only care for themselves and couldn’t care less about what the truth is, how lying hurts others, or whether or not the situation is just. The officers created their own narrative as to what was going on and that influenced the juror’s decision. This did not effect the one jurors view but as said before they silenced her to make themselves look better and to get the whole situation over with. This just goes to show that the justice system in this country is not just at all and that those who see problems within it are somehow hurting the system instead of trying to better it. It is the opposite. Something else that I thought was interesting was the hostility between the Korean merchants and the black communities that they were in. This is hostility is not new to me but seeing it portrayed in such a way intrigued me. There were already tensions between the two, but considering the riots the air thickened and that led to violence from both parties. The Korean merchants felt threatened by the riots and understandably so as buildings were being burned to the ground and stores were being looted. This along with their stereotypes about blacks led to them being violent out of fear that everything they worked so hard for would be burned to the ground. The blacks in these communities were angry. They were sick of injustice going unnoticed and they were sick of protesting peacefully. They needed to bring attention to this problem and they felt that violence was the way to do that.

Something else that was interesting to me was how Smith portrayed all the people from the interviews that she used. This highlights the privilege of people like Elaine Young who had the ability to leave the chaos and the guilt of people like the male juror who maybe didn’t at the time understand the magnitude of the situation until it was too late.

Both observations show a lack of knowledge about the situation the others were in. This can and often does lead to hostility between communities, but learning and listening to other groups of people’s situations can bring them together.

A couple different thoughts

I thought Smith’s portrayal of the juror was extremely moving. I was really happy to see that Smith displayed this side of the trial process as well. I think that in this sort of case where there is such a deeply emotional aspect, it is easy to believe someone is clearly in the wrong; however, there are often much more complicated parts of decision making than there appear to be. Hearing the story of a juror who was threatened and harassed after performing a legal duty for which they did not ask really humanized the side of the story  that we may all look at and immediately judge. I think it was  interesting that Smith did not discuss the decision making process behind the case much at all  and instead she focused on the emotional aspect of the jurors’ lives after the decision was public. In doing this, Smith is able to convey to her audience the true fear and emotional turbulence of being a juror on a case like this and how the disruption to one’s life does not simply end with the termination of the case: these jurors were heckled afterwards and likely had significant, ongoing emotional trauma. What’s truly sad is that jurors are not volunteers; these people did not choose to put themselves in such a dangerous position. I would imagine that if I were one of the jurors on this case, I would not only have great fear for my safety and the safety of my family, but I would also carry a sense of guilt and responsibility for Mr. King, despite not personally knowing him, as I would have heard all the gruesome aspects of this case and been in a position to punish those who beat him.

Changing course just a little bit, I wanted to quickly address my thoughts on Elaine Young. While I was watching this clearly privileged woman's description of going out on an evening of the riot, my mind immediately went to Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway", the internal monologue of Clarissa Dalloway, a rich woman, who goes to buy a fancy pair of gloves for a party she is hosting in the midst of World War I. In this story, Clarissa is continuously avoiding the topic of the war, even in her own mind, only briefly mentioning it when the shop girl apologizes for the fact that the war has caused the quality of gloves to decrease. Oh how DREADFUL for Clarissa. I find Elaine's recounting to be a near replica of Woolf's societal commentary. Elaine is afraid for herself, a wealthy white girl who would never be the victim of the violence the blacks and hispanics were (and unfortunately today remain) facing, so she goes to the upscale Beverly Hills hotel, only to be annoyed by the fact that it is crowded. I don't really know what I can say beyond the fact that both these women's privilege has clearly destroyed their ability to empathize which I think is incredibly sad. And the fact that Mrs. Dalloway is a fictional character intended to make commentary on society makes it even sadder that Elaine Young is a real person who displayed a nearly identical selfishness and lack of empathy.