[Isaiah Kessler]

I chose this image and this meme for several reasons as my last photo share. First, it really speaks to the undereducation and the arrogance that society faces. We are drowning in economic, social, and environmental problems and they are simply being ignored. We talked about the fear of the apocalypse and the end of times but in reality, we are living it. I also found it interesting that in several old novels our current social structure and issues would be described as a dystopian future like in George Orwell’s 1985. I feel that as a society we need to make more efforts to force people to recognize problems rather than simply push them aside or act as if they are unaffected.

[Isaiah Kessler]

Although this image is a lighthearted comic it does speak an important message. In our male-dominated society men often see women as an object of sexual pleasure rather than as a being with feelings and emotions. It truly is sad that man men are raised to see women in such a way and that some women are raised to view themselves in this way as well. With the #metoo movement and others like it aimed to empower women as sexual beings rather than objects and to give women a voice there has been a drastic change in the understanding between men and women. In the realm of sex and outside there has been a greater change in how men view women and even how women view women.

[Isaiah Kessler]

I shared this photo of officer Natalie Corona who was shot and killed in January of this year for this week for several reasons. After doing some research I learned that at UC Davis many students view this photo of the fallen officer as racist and that the “Blue Lives Matter” movement is similar to the All Lives Matter statement but this really isn’t the case. I will fully agree that saying all lives matter is not fair to the Black Lives Matter movement and that it was a statement devised to take the wind out of the BLM protests sails. However, the Blue LM movement is quite different. With both family and friends in the line of duty, it is painful to see such a disparity between the two movements. The blue lives matter movement does not aim to remove from the BLM movement as they aim for different things. The BLM aim for better knowledge and a change from our current state of the treatment of POC. The Blue Lives movement aims to demonstrate that violence toward the police that aims to protect you is not the answer to the problem. More radical BLM groups call for violence toward law enforcement. Just like any movement, there are good groups and bad and this stands for both Black and Blue Lives Matter. Natalie Corona was a woman of color and was a well-renowned member of her community as well as a dedicated officer her image is not racist and should not be viewed as such.

[Isaiah Kessler]

I chose this image because in Arizona a house bill was passed back in 2010 that outlawed certain Mexican-American studies in the curriculum. Many more conservative people in the area felt that the new curriculum was teaching students to resent white people and to adopt left-wing ideals. The Arizona legislature passed HB 2281 — a law banning courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, foster racial resentment, are designed for students of a particular ethnic group or that advocate ethnic solidarity. This law effectively prevented schools from teaching any form of ethnic studies and it silenced the voice of the groups being taught about. In 2017 the law was deemed unconstitutional and the law has been lifted. He stated that the law seemed racially motivated and was not necessary.

[Isaiah Kessler]

I chose this photo accompanied by this quote for several reasons. I initially saw the quote and I believe that it is a very true statement. Hip hop is and was a very strong political force and should be used wisely. In class, we talked about how there are different types of hip hop artists and how some seem to portray the wrong message. Messages of misogyny and drug use, gang violence and murder. However, there are artists who solely try to spread their political messages and open the eyes of the youth. Assata Shakur was a female black panther and part of the Black Liberation Army. She was arrested for the murder of a state patrolman and after her escape to this day, she resides in Cuba. She was part of one of the most radical black power groups ever and yet now she talks about using the weapon of hip hop wisely.

[Isaiah Kessler]

This week I shared a link to the music video “Kenji” by the group Fort Minor. The song and music video talks about the era of Japanese internment and the atrocities that were inflicted upon Japanese Americans. In the song, the narrator talks about the family being forcibly taken from their home and forced to travel to a camp and because they didn’t want to be hurt they just put their heads down and did as they were told. The song connects to the theme of the week as we talked about Asian activism and the intersectional ties that groups create in order to form stronger movements. The song is very powerful and should be given a listen. The narrative of Kenji and his family is very moving and powerful. I also felt that the portion of the song that talked about Kenji not hating the soldiers for doing their job was very powerful as well as the portion of men leaving the camp to fight in a war that wasn’t theirs to fight in.

[Isaiah Kessler]

I chose this image because it speaks to the ideology of all the three men that we discussed this last week. Although Mark Levy is a white man he speaks of the continuation of the civil rights movement. Today in our schools the civil rights movement is taught through an outdated and white supremacist lens. More radical thinkers like Malcolm X are essentially written off as radical and seldom discussed. Levy explains this issue and at a conference for teachers, he explained that we as a society must change the way that the civil rights movement is taught. Teaching about all that it was meant to be will allow it to succeed as it progresses into the future.

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